Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers entered the series against the Brewers as winners of their last four, but they had struggled against potential playoff teams outside the division thus far (1-6) and were looking to flip that script by kicking off the start of the four-game series with a victory. They managed to do exactly that behind Julio Urias, Cody Bellinger, and Max Muncy in a 3-1 win.
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The bats struggled to score against opposing starter Zach Davies, managing three hits and three walks but no runs. They failed to capitalize in the 2nd with a runner on second and two outs, then in the 4th with runners on the corners and two outs, and in the 5th with a runner on second and one out and with a runner on third and two outs. Fortunately, Davies only lasted five innings because the Dodgers made him work for his outs, making him throw 97 pitches.
That proved key as with Josh Hader looming, Matt Albers entered in the 6th and the Dodgers lit him up in the span of three batters. With one down, Bellinger unloaded on a 3-2 fastball up in the zone for his 10th dong of the year to tie him for the MLB lead and put the Dodgers in front, 1-0.
AJ Pollock then hit the first pitch he saw for a single and Muncy followed by hammering a 2-1 fastball away over the fence the opposite way for a 3-0 lead.
Urias didn’t even need that much support, as he turned in one of the best performances of his career to date. He set a career-high with nine strikeouts and allowed a great Brewers lineup just one hit and two walks in six shutout innings. The Brew Crew never advanced a runner past first base.
Of course, he may not have needed the runs, but the shaky pen needed to get three innings.
Caleb Ferguson took over in the 7th and didn’t miss a beat, notching a 1-2-3 frame with a strikeout. He came back out for the 8th and gave up a single to left that probably should’ve been caught and then struck out the next batter before being removed for Joe Kelly.
Kelly honestly continued to look not great despite getting two outs without damage. He allowed a fliner into the gap that was caught, then a stolen base, and then a single to left but had his bacon saved by Alex Verdugo‘s arm.
Kenley Jansen then entered in the 9th to close it out and was immediately greeted by a booming homer to center from Christian Yelich on a 92 mph cutter that caught the middle of the plate and didn’t cut much. However, he rebounded with a strikeout and a jam-shot grounder to first. But the tension ratcheted up after a single brought the tying run to the plate, so thankfully Kenley induced an infield fly to end it and secure the victory.
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The Dodgers improve to 13-8 on the season and will do it again tomorrow against the Brewers at 2:10 PM HST/5:10 PM PST/8:10 PM EST. Ross Stripling will take the bump against Jhoulys Chacin.
