Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Another start, another poor performance by Alex Wood. However, the Cleveland Indians’ bullpen countered with its own disappointing outing and the Los Angeles Dodgers (28-21) rallied for a 7-6 victory on Friday.
On a tear the past few days, Corey Seager helped cut down Cleveland’s lead to one with a two-run single in the seventh inning before Chris Taylor’s run-scoring double provided one of the steepest changes I’ve seen on the win expectancy chart this season.
“Feels good to get the job done,” the computer simulation said after spending a few milliseconds spitting out the score of the game.
Cleveland (26-26) put the tying run on second to lead off the ninth, but Kenley Jansen stranded Oscar Mercado while striking out Francisco Lindor in the process.
But enough about all the good. Let’s get back to Wood and his 6.97 ERA after allowing six runs and nine hits in his six innings of work. With Price gone (R.I.P), the Dodgers have gotten thinner in this rotation that includes a struggling Julio Urias and Jimmy Nelson randomly coming and going.
For some reason, it appears the virtual Dodgers are trying to limit Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin’s service time. We are nearly a third of the way through the season and Wood is right back to his awful ways after one strong start against the Kansas City Royals. I doubt the game is going to make a change, but it seems incredible Wood can’t at least get an IL break for a few weeks.
Wood did his best to pitch his team out of the game, with Lindor and former Dodger superstar … Breyvic Valera (?) each finishing with three hits, Mike Clevinger mostly cruised until the end of his outing.
Seager broke through first with a two-run homer in the sixth, his 11th of the year. Clevinger finished the inning, but didn’t last long in the seventh as he closed out his day with 6 1/3 IP, allowing seven hits, four walks and four runs after Phil Maton allowed both inherited runners to score. Matrix Muncy’s double off of Maton helped trim the lead down to 6-5, with Wood having just given up a few more runs in the top half of the inning.
Trying to prove to Dodger fans he’s worth keeping as they watched Lindor finish 3-for-4 with a double, home run and two runs scored, Seager went 3-for-3 with a homer and hit by pitch. Driving in four runs against the Indians, Seager’s RBI total now stands at 42.
Maton left after just 2/3 of an inning, but James Karinchak allowed the go-ahead run in the eighth as he allowed two hits and two walks on just 17 pitches.
Code Bellinger and Mookie Botts also finished with multi-hit games, and the former added two walks.
Amazingly Caleb “Turd” Ferguson escaped the eighth unscathed, with two strikeouts around one hit while needing just 12 pitches in the inning. Jansen took over from there to close it out.
Walker Buehler faces Aaron Civale in Saturday’s game, a matchup that heavily favors the Dodgers on paper.
