Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers secured the series win against the NL West division rival Rockies tonight with a 4-0 victory, and most importantly they’ve now won nine games in a row and 15 of their last 16. It’s kinda good.
Of course, it always helps to have Clayton Kershaw starting when you’re trying to extend a winning streak, and he certainly delivered tonight.
——
Coming off one of the worst starts of Kershaw’s career, it seemed like an interesting time for Dave Roberts to drop this.
Dave Roberts on Clayton Kershaw bouncing back from last night: "I wouldn't want to be the Rockies come Saturday."
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) June 21, 2017
It seemed even weirder after the Rockies loaded the bases in the first inning, and Kershaw looked like he was back on his struggle game. However, I guess that woke him up or something, as he rattled off 13 straight batters retired after that and looked very much like Kershaw is supposed to look.
Granted, that ran up his pitch count a bit so he threw 103 in six innings of work, but they were shutout innings. Kershaw allowed just four hits and a walk while striking out a whopping eight batters in his excellent showing that hopefully gets him right back on track.
——
The offense didn’t have one of their banner days, but they certain did enough. In the second, Logan Forsythe and Yasiel Puig drew back-to-back one out walks, and Enrique Hernandez got the scoring started with a single to left.
The next inning, Joc Pederson got things off to a quick start by bombing a pitch over the center-field wall to double the lead.
Justin Turner followed with a walk, and he then scored after a one-out single to right by Yasmani Grandal that was literally booted for an error.
Later in the third, Puig, Enrique, and Kershaw drew back-to-back-to-back walks to score Grandal and put the Dodgers up by four.
The Dodgers only had six hits on the day, but half of them went for extra bases and they drew a whopping 10 walks, meaning they did leave an ample amount of opportunities uncashed.
Still, they gave Brandon Morrow, Pedro Baez, and Sergio Romo a lead they should be able to hold, and that they did. The trio combined for three scoreless innings to lock down the win, perhaps most importantly saving Kenley Jansen and keeping him fresh for tomorrow.
——
Folks, the Dodgers are now 50-26 in 2017 and 31-10 at Dodger Stadium, this is goddamn ridiculous. This basically can’t continue (or they end up as one of the greatest teams of all-time), but for now, wheeeee. The win puts the Dodgers clear of the Rockies by 3.5 games, but the Diamondbacks beat the Phillies so they’re now in second place 2.5 games back. The Dodgers are also still just one game behind the Astros for the best record in baseball.
The Dodgers look to make it a cool 10 games in a row tomorrow afternoon at 10:10 AM HST/1:10 PM PST/4:10 PM EST. Brandon McCarthy (2.87 ERA/3.17 FIP/3.80 DRA) will look to continue his excellent 2017, and he’ll matchup against Tyler Anderson (5.75 ERA/5.01 FIP/4.97 DRA), who has struggled to regain the effectiveness he had a year ago.
