Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
A Gavin Lux double and Corey Seager single propelled the Dodgers (58-39) to a 10-9 victory in the 11th inning against the Giants (42-54) as the second half of the season began on Thursday.
More impressively, Caleb Ferguson earned the victory after pitching three scoreless innings for the Dodgers after Alex Wood and mop-up man Kenley Jansen allowed nine runs combined in the first five innings of the game.
The Dodgers opened the scoring with three runs in the second inning, as Will Smith hit a three-run homer off of Jeff Samardzija. San Francisco got one back in the third as old friend Yasiel Puig hit a solo shot off of Wood, the first of three runs he scored during the day. The homers continued in the bottom of the inning as Samardzija allowed a pair of solo dongs to Code Bellinger and Mookie Botts.
Of course, that lead was short-lived as Wood allowed six runs in the fourth before Jansen entered to stop the rally, though not before allowing two of his three inherited runs to score. The Giants tacked on two more in the fifth, wrapping up their scoring for the day as the combination of Brandon Kintzler, Blake Treinen and Ferguson combined for five scoreless innings allowing just two hits and striking out seven. Treinen’s involvement actually wasn’t the best, allowing a hit and walk in the eighth before working out of the inning. From there, Ferguson struck out four across the ninth, 10th and 11th while facing the minimum.
Offensively, Los Angeles added three runs in the fifth to come within one run of San Francisco. Seager’s 32nd double of the season drove home one of the runs, as he finished the game 2-for-6 with 2 RBIs and a run scored. Matrix Muncy tied it up in the seventh with his own RBI double, leading to the need for extra innings.
After two batters reached against Tyler Rogers, Gabe Kapler turned to another old friend to try to save the game. However, Tony Watson did not manage that as Seager drove home the run for the walk-off victory.
“We take it day by day here,” Seager said. “And today was a good one for us.“
Lux, Bellinger, Botts, Smith and Justin Turner all finished with multi-hit days. Jansen also apparently singled in his lone plate appearance, improving his batting average to .500 this season.
Walker Buehler and Tyler Anderson face off Friday in the second game of the four-game series, with the Dodgers now holding a four-game lead in the NL West.
