Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
I will forever loathe Satan Field as it was the place where Matt Kemp‘s career went to die (before this year’s resurgence), but aside from that, these wild games always seem to happen there. Today’s contest was no exception in a back-and-forth slugfest, but at least it felt better thanks to the Dodgers eventually prevailing over the Rockies, 11-8.
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The Dodgers grand experiment with The Opener blew up in their face today. Reliever Scott Alexander allowed a single to start, but got two quick outs to seemingly put himself on the verge of escaping. However, he allowed a Carlos Gonzalez triple to plate a run before getting out of the frame. With a short bench, Alexander was allowed to flail for an at-bat at the plate, and remained in the game for one batter in the 2nd and thankfully got an out.
That brought on rookie starter Dennis Santana to make his major league debut with one out in the 2nd, and he ended up surrendering three runs on a three hits and a hit-by-pitch before getting out of it. It was a rough overall debut, as he ended up surrendering two more runs and was charged with five earned in 3.2 innings on 70 pitches. Santana struck out four, but gave up six hits and a walk.
Looking forward to seeing him work when he gets a more conventional assignment in a more conventional environment.
Despite the air that slider still has some bite pic.twitter.com/pJwhywnbYn
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) June 2, 2018
So that was all less than ideal, but thankfully the struggling offense seemingly got a boost from Coors Field. The first three batters the Dodgers sent to the plate accounted for two runs, as Chris Taylor started with a altitude-assisted triple off the wall in right-center, and scored on a Justin Turner sacrifice fly to right. Kemp then immediately followed by bombing a homer to left.
After taking some time off, the offense came back with a crooked number in the 4th. Logan Forsythe, Austin Barnes, and Yasiel Puig loaded the bases with three consecutive singles with one out, and two were brought home by none other than Dennis “Shohei Ohtani Who” Santana, who smashed the first pitch he saw in the majors for a double that one-hopped the wall.
CT3 followed with a sacrifice fly to right for the third run of the inning before the Rockies got out of it.
The offense came right back in the 6th with a Puig single, a Breyvic Valera walk, and CT3 pounding a ball over the right-field wall for a three-run shot.
Things didn’t stop there, as Turner doubled off the wall, Kemp reached after being hit, and the bases were loaded with one out after Max Muncy drew a walk. However, the Dodgers only got a run out of it with a Forsythe sac fly to make things 9-6.
Erik Goeddel continued his scoreless innings run as a member of the Dodgers in the 6th, but Yimi Garcia did give up a homer to Nolan Arenado in the 7th to cut the lead to two.
Maybe don't throw a slider there to Arenado pic.twitter.com/rcrfHRt66w
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) June 2, 2018
Tony Cingrani then entered for the 8th and got two outs before giving way to Kenley Jansen for a four-out save attempt, which honestly just seemed unnecessary. Jansen allowed a single, but escaped the inning without damage.
In the mean time, the Dodgers found insurance in the 9th thanks to a two-out Barnes walk and then a Puig bomb into the trees in center to make it 11-7.
That gave Kenley some breathing room, and he obviously emerged again for the 9th. He surrendered a run on a grounded single, a fielder’s indifference, and a jam-shot single, and he put the tying run at the plate with a walk, but eventually escaped to prevent a truly messy Coors Field game from going down.
It’s been one game and I can’t wait to get the fuck out of here already.
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The win gets the Dodgers to 27-30 on the year, once again one win away to getting back to two games below .500 for the first time since the start of May. Most importantly, the win over the Rockies cut their NL West lead to just three.
The Dodgers and Rockies will continue the series tomorrow on FOX at 1:15 PM HST/4:15 PM PST/7:15 PM EST. Walker Buehler (2.20 ERA/2.09 FIP/3.23 DRA), who is now the staff ace, will take the mound against German Marquez (4.21 ERA/4.00 FIP/3.66 DRA), who limited the Dodgers to one run over seven innings on May 21.
