Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Following a 16-3 blowout last night, Walker Buehler against the Blue Jays pen seemed like another one was incoming. However, baseball will be baseball (Astros lost today to the Tigers as -560 favorites) and it was a closely-fought battle tonight.
Kenley Jansen blew another save, but thankfully it was the Dodgers that prevailed in a 2-1 win over the Blue Jays to secure the series.
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The red-hot Dodgers bats were quieted for the first three innings, getting nothing until the 4th when Will Smith parked another homer (his 12th) to start the scoring at 1-0.
Chris Taylor then immediately followed by hitting a liner into the right-center field gap. It looked catchable by both outfielders but neither took it, and it led to a triple by CT3 … but not a homer, which is what he tried for and he was gunned down at the plate.
Just how we planned it 😉 pic.twitter.com/Uu2Ea02rX8
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 22, 2019
Despite the offense not getting going, fortunately Buehler bounced back from his surprising struggles against the Marlins. At one point he set down 11 batters in a row and he wiggled out of trouble in the 3rd and 7th without much trouble.
In his 91 pitches, he got through seven shutout frames. He walked none and scattered five hits while striking out eight batters in a stellar outing.
Joe Kelly then took over in the 8th as the setup man, getting two comebackers and a strikeout to cruise through a scoreless inning.
With the offense still unable to get insurance, Jansen was brought in for the 9th. He started with a three-pitch strikeout, but after a long battle with Rowdy Tellez, a quality pitch was hit out to right to tie the game at 1-1. Jansen then rebounded with a fly out and a pop-out to short.
After Pedro Baez got a scoreless 10th, that setup the Dodgers in their half of the inning. And of course Max Muncy was the one who did it again, smashing his 33rd dong for the year for a walk-off tater.
That’s five games in a row with a homer for him, by the way.
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The Dodgers improve to 84-44 on the year, which a 106-win pace. They now lead the NL West by 20 games, the NL by 8 games, and MLB by a game.
They’ll go for the sweep tomorrow at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST with Kenta Maeda facing somebody named Jacob Waguespack … probably?
