Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After yesterday’s rain delay, it was anticipated that there would be similar problems this afternoon. Thankfully there wasn’t, but the game still played as if there was, as it was a rather long and messy affair.
As a consolation, the Dodgers came out on top against the Pirates to complete the series sweep in a high-scoring affair of 11-7.
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Corey Seager got the scoring started in the game with a big solo blast off Chris Archer to start the 2nd, his fifth of the year.
It certainly feels like he’s getting comfortable again.
Kenta Maeda did give it back almost immediately in the Pirates half of the inning, surrendering a single to Josh Bell and then coughing up a dinger to Bryan Reynolds to make it 2-1 in favor of the bad guys.
After a bit of a respite from scoring, the offense roared to the lead in the 5th. Max Muncy walked, Justin Turner singled, Cody Bellinger walked to load the bases, and Matt Beaty capitalized by singling to right and driving in two. Seager then grounded out, which drove in another run, and by the end of it all the Dodgers had a 4-2 lead.
The Pirates again responded in their half of the inning, as Kenta grooved one to Adam Frazier and he took advantage with a homer to cut the lead to 4-3.
Five innings was it for Maeda, who actually pitched fine but the two homers lead to all three runs against him. Other than that, he walked none and gave up just three singles while striking out four on the afternoon.
The Dodgers had his back though, as they exploded in the 6th. The inning started with a lead-off Joc Pederson homer, his 15th of the year, to get the lead back to two at 5-3.
With one down, JT singled and Bellinger doubled, then Beaty drove in another run and reached on an error.
Seager then walked to load the bases, and that started the carousel as Enrique Hernandez and Austin Barnes were both hit by pitches to plate two more. Alex Verdugo then plated another with a sacrifice fly that moved everybody up, and Joc made it 10-3 with a single to cap off a five-run inning.
Unfortunately, the Pirates came right back against Caleb Ferguson. While he didn’t get rocked and there was a lot of soft contact finding holes, he did give up four singles and a walk to get the Pirates back into things with a three-run inning to make it 10-6. He has now given up six runs in his last two innings, elevating his ERA from 3.07 to 5.94.
Beaty provided a bit of insurance in the 7th with his fourth RBI of the game. After a JT walk, he advanced to second on a grounder, and Beaty blooped a single into left to make it 11-6.
Despite Caleb’s mess, it was nice to see he was followed by Pedro Baez, who looked relatively normal after it seemed like his kneecap exploded after being hit by a comebacker against the Rays. He issued a four-pitch walk but got a scoreless frame.
Yimi Garcia got the 8th and gave up a hit, but also struck out two in a scoreless frame of his own. Ross Stripling could not continue that trend, surrendering a run on two hits, but managed to get through the inning without anything else and capped things off with a strikeout, giving us the final score of 11-7.
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The Dodgers are 35-18 on the year, a 107-win pace, and they are now up 7 games in the NL West over both the Padres and Diamondbacks. Perhaps more relevantly at this point, they lead the NL by 3.5 games now over the Cubs and are a 1 game behind the Twins in the battle for the best in the MLB.
After a successful road trip, the Dodgers return home tomorrow against the Mets for a 2:00 PM HST/5:00 PM PST/8:00 PM EST game. The matchup is a potentially fun one with Clayton Kershaw (LHP/3.33 ERA/3.71 FIP/3.35 DRA) facing off against Jacob deGrom (RHP/3.72 ERA/3.37 FIP/2.59 DRA).
