Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Lost in all the mess of the trade deadline, the Dodgers had a nice little 4-2 road trip. Now they’re home where they’ve been dominant, but they faced the Padres who won three of four at Dodger Stadium before the All-Star break.
While things were tight through five, the Dodgers blew things open with a five-run 6th inning and then coasted to an 8-2 victory over the Padres.
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Clayton Kershaw took the mound for the Dodgers and was uncharacteristically wild, walking five batters on the night. However, the Padres took the lead in the 2nd in a characteristic way for Kershaw, as he surrendered a solo homer to Hunter Renfroe.
Cody Bellinger fought back in the 2nd with a solo homer himself, his 35th of the year to tie the game at 1-1.
The aforementioned walks did bite Kershaw in the 3rd, as he issued two walks and allowed a two-out single to Manny Machado to make it 2-1. Despite the walks, Kershaw went six strong on 87 pitches, allowing the couple of runs on six hits and striking out five.
The bigger problem when he exited was the offense, which had just three plate appearances with runners in scoring position to that point. In the 6th the bats changed things in a big way. After an A.J. Pollock single, two outs followed and made it seem like another empty inning. However, back-to-back walks to Bellinger and Tyler White loaded the bases, which set the stage for Will Smith, and boy did he deliver again with his sixth homer for a grand slam and a 5-2 lead.
They didn’t stop there either as Kristopher Negron walked and then Matt Beaty doubled sharply into the gap to make it 6-2, though he did go for a triple and beat the throw but was called out after oversliding the bag.
They added on in the 7th behind a Corey Seager pinch-hit double, a Pollock infield single, and a two-out double off the wall in left for Bellinger for two insurance runs to make it 8-2.
At least one fan was ecstatic.
Meanwhile, the important parts of the pen continued to do well, with Joe Kelly rolling along with a 1-2-3 innings that included a strikeout. That said, the middle relief was still shaky, as Dylan Floro returned from a neck injury and walked two, though he didn’t give up a run at least. Yimi Garcia then took over and was similarly mediocre, giving up a single and a double before escaping with a scoreless frame to end it.
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The Dodgers reach 72-39 with the victory, which is still a 105-win pace.
The two teams do it again tomorrow night at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST. Dustin May AKA Gingergaard will make his MLB debut facing off against Eric Lauer.
