Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers stuck the Phillies with a rather humiliating loss to start the series last night, and the Phillies came back motivated by leaping out to a lead after a 2nd inning explosion. However, a barrage of homers by the Dodgers led to a 9th inning lead, but the Phillies got three runs to walk it off in a dramatic 9-8 victory.
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Much like last night, Scott Kingery started the scoring in the 1st with a solo homer off Walker Buehler for an early lead. But the Dodgers didn’t take long to come back against Vince Velasquez, as Max Muncy dropped an absolute bomb (25th) in right to tie the game with a solo shot of his own.
Stop and stare, indeed.
The Phillies retook the lead immediately with a five-run inning. After a Justin Turner throwing error, Brad Miller took advantage with a two-run shot to right to make it 3-1. Five batters later, Bryce Harper smashed a two-out, three-run homer to dead center to make it 6-1.
Buehler did settle after that, allowing no further damage in his six innings. Due to the error, he actually only gave up two earned runs out of the six, only coughing up four hits and three walks while striking out seven. Hard to characterize it as a good outing, but it could’ve potentially gone a lot differently.
While it seemed like the Phillies were the ones who were going to win a laugher, the Dodgers fought back to make it a game. After JT reached on an error to start the 4th, Cody Bellinger lined a homer (34th) just over the wall in right to cut the lead to 6-3. Later in the inning, A.J. Pollock hit a solo shot (5th) of his own to cut the lead to 6-4.
The next inning saw more of the same from the Dodgers as Joc Pederson ripped his 21st dong of the year for a solo shot to make it 6-5 in the 5th.
Unfortunately, after that homer, the Phillies retired 12 straight.
In the 7th, Pedro Baez issued a walk but managed a scoreless outing that he capped with a strikeout. Yimi Garcia was the option in a one-run game in the 8th, which sorta highlights the need for better pen options (5.6 FIP, 5.1 DRA). Thankfully, he got a 1-2-3 inning to keep the Dodgers well within striking distance.
After a brief rain delay, Muncy broke the streak of retired batters with a lead-off walk and Pollock followed with a jam-shot single over short. With one down, Matt Beaty crushed his 3rd homer of the year for a three-run shot to vault the Dodgers into an 8-6 lead.
Hector Neris then hit David Freese to get ejected, and unlike last night, this one seemed intentional.
That set things up for Kenley Jansen in the 9th. After looking dominant against the Red Sox, he didn’t look so sharp particularly after getting hit with a comebacker that required a visit from Dave Roberts after it looked like he was favoring his right leg.
After he got an out on the deflected comebacker, he then gave up a clean double, a seeing-eye single, a sky-high pop-up that dropped in front of Pollock for another single, and then a single that bounced off Pollock and past him for a game-winning hit to finish 9-8.
Kenley certainly didn’t pitch well and the defense certainly didn’t help, which generally doesn’t work out.
Wild game, less than ideal result.
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The Dodgers drop to 63-34 on the year.
Kenta Maeda will square off against Nick Pivetta at 1:05 PM HST/4:05 PM PST/7:05 PM EST tomorrow night, which is another matchup that looks favorable for the Dodgers but it’s baseball so who the hell knows.
