Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers entered the series against the Padres on a roll and were desperately looking to have that continue. After a relatively stress-free 4-1 win, thanks in large part to Ross Stripling transforming into a quality starter, the Dodgers have now won three in a row.
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So let’s start with Stripling, whose curve Daniel recently highlighted. There’s no better place to start, because after a 6.2-inning outing without allowing an earned run, Stripling’s ERA now sits at 1.74 and he has a 1.97 FIP.
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) May 26, 2018
Dave Roberts allowed him to throw 105 pitches, and he gave up six hits and no walks on the night while striking out 10.
The only run he allowed came in the 4th when Manuel Margot led off with a double down the line in right with Yasiel Puig rushing over in an attempt to get him at second, but in doing so dropped the ball and kinda assumed Margot would stop at second, but he didn’t and advanced to third on Puig’s error. Stripling proceeded to notch two strikeouts and get a routine grounder for three outs, but a run scored on the grounder.
— bird hating account (@atf13atf) May 26, 2018
The offense got started extremely quickly tonight at least, with Chris Taylor and Justin Turner both starting the game with seven-pitch walks, and Matt Kemp bombing a fastball up in the zone into the left-center field seats.
The Dodgers added another in the 3rd on a homer, this time a more typical solo shot coming from Enrique Hernandez.
While the offense didn’t do anything aside from the two homers, at least the pen didn’t implode. Pedro Baez came in for Chicken Strip to finish the 7th with a strikeout, then Tony Cingrani entered in the 8th and got a 1-2-3 frame with two strikeouts.
Kenley Jansen then closed things out in the 9th, getting a routine fly out to center, a strikeout looking at the knees, and a strikeout swinging at a high cutter. That’s what I like. Jansen now has pitched 13 innings in May and has allowed just one run on seven hits and two walks, striking out 13 with that number climbing in recent performances.
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https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/1000206499535249409
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The Dodgers are now 23-27 overall and winners of seven of their last eight. They remain 3.5 games back of the Rockies in the NL West, as they won today.
The series with the Padres continues tomorrow at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST, with Alex Wood (3.32 ERA/2.62 FIP/2.36 DRA) looking to continue a quietly good year against Jordan Lyles (3.11 ERA/3.79 FIP/5.93 DRA) making just his fourth start of the year.
