Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers put their six-game winning streak on the line tonight in what was a dodgy matchup for them between Hyun-Jin Ryu, who was spot starting, and Carlos Martinez, who has been pitching like an ace in 2017. However, what it came down to was a late homer by Dexter Fowler off Ross Stripling that took down the Dodgers, 2-1.
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Martinez was as advertised, looking dominant through five shutout innings over a red-hot offense, but the Dodgers eventually got to him in the 6th. A one-out walk by Corey Seager, followed by a single to left-center by Yasmani Grandal, put the runners on the corners. Adrian Gonzalez then stepped to the plate and did his job, elevating a ball to deep center for an easy sacrifice fly. That was about all they got, though.
What I didn’t quite expect was a pitchers’ duel, but thanks to Ryu that’s exactly what we got. The Cards got just 1 run, with it coming in the 2nd inning off a Paul DeJong double to score Tommy Pham. Ryu generally cruised through 6 strong innings, needing only 77 pitches as he struck out 4 and allowed just 3 hits and 1 walk.
Stripling entered in relief and got 2 innings, actually looking very sharp for the most part. Unfortunately, with two down in the 8th, he hung a slider and Fowler bombed a no-doubter for the go-ahead homer.
The story of the game, though, is the Cardinals limiting the Dodgers to 5 hits and 3 walks, and that was about all she wrote.
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Tonight’s loss snaps the 6-game winning streak of the Dodgers and drops them to 33-21 on the year. It also drops them to just 12-13 away from Chavez Ravine.
The Dodgers go for the series win again tomorrow in the final game of the four-game set with the Cardinals at the ungodly hour of 7:45 AM HST/10:45 AM PST/1:45 PM EST. The pitching matchup has potential, with Brandon McCarthy (3.28 ERA/3.01 FIP/3.40 DRA) looking to continue his excellent 2017 going up against Adam Wainwright (4.20 ERA/3.49 FIP/5.44 DRA), who has not been himself since 2014 but who knows.
