Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
With their bullpen finally running into some trouble, the Dodgers made an interesting (some would say bad) decision in the 8th that ultimately cost them the game.
A one-out error by Justin Turner and a walk to Kole Calhoun put Blake Treinen into trouble with the Dodgers leading the Diamondbacks 3-1 in the 8th.
Both runners moved up on a groundout by Starling Marte, offering Treinen the chance to face Eduardo Escobar with two away. Hitting .148 with a .429 OPS in his 29 PAs entering Friday’s game, Escobar was sent on to first as the Dodgers elected to face Christian Walker instead.
He proceeded to rip the first pitch into right-center for a bases clearing double and the lead.
BASES CLEARED.
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) August 1, 2020
CHRISTIAN WALKER.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥@Dbacks pic.twitter.com/8gP183hak2
David Peralta singled in Walker to extend the lead to 5-3 after Joe Kelly entered the game, with another single and walk loading the bases again before the Dodgers finally escaped the disaster.
A Matt Beaty walk and a Mookie Betts double put the tying runs in scoring position with two outs in the 9th, but Cody Bellinger’s unfortunately terrible start to the season continued as he fouled out behind third to end the game and snap the road winning streak at three games.
——
Despite Zac Gallen tying a career high with nine strikeouts in his six innings of work, the Dodgers and Betts managed to take a lead early on against the Diamondbacks.
Betts got to work early on, highlighted by this throw in the first inning.
Ketel Marte made the mistake of trying to extend a leadoff double into a triple and Betts essentially offered Tony Gonsolin a mulligan to open the game. Making his first appearance of the season, Gonsolin retired the next nine batters before walking Calhoun in the fourth. A flyout and strikeout wrapped up his day after 4 innings, with just the one hit, walk and strikeout on 63 pitches.
While Gonsolin was on the mound, Betts kept a ball inside the foul pole in left for his first homer as a Dodger.
Betts added another RBI in the fifth as the Dodgers played a little small ball. After Edwin Rios led off the inning with a double off of Gallen, Austin Barnes sacrificed him over to third and Max Muncy was hit by his third pitch of the season. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Betts slapped the ball into right for an RBI single and a 2-0 lead for the Dodgers.
In the 8th, Corey Seager tried to hit some guys sitting in the stands to double the lead that had been trimmed to 2-1 in the 6th.
That’s Seager’s third home run in as many days as he continues to do the exact opposite of Bellinger early on in the year.
——
After Gonsolin left, the Dodgers turned to Victor Gonzalez for his major league debut. Two men reached in the 5th, but Gonzalez induced a groundout to get out of the inning. The rookie ran into some trouble in the sixth as well, as Ketel singled and Calhoun doubled to trim the Dodgers’ advantage to 2-1.
That ended Gonzalez’s day, with Dylan Floro entering to try to preserve the lead. After walking Starling, Floro’s 0-1 changeup well out of the zone to Escobar resulted in a double play. While Calhoun moved to third, a Walker flyout ended the threat.
Caleb Ferguson took the 7th and continued to look like the opposite of what he was in our OOTP simulation, erasing a Peralta single with a double play and faced just three batters in the inning.
Unfortunately, the bullpen couldn’t close out another victory from there.
——
And that’s now 0-3 when I do the recap. Cool.
