Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Following a series opening victory, the Dodgers ran into a Zac Gallen on his game today as he dominated for the Diamondbacks, but late rallies led to a comeback victory in extra innings, 3-2.
The Invincibles season is secure for now yet again.
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Coming off essentially skipping a start due to a blister issue, Walker Buehler didn’t miss much of a beat, delivering five scoreless frames with six strikeouts. He limited the D-backs to just two hits and a walk.
The only time he faced real trouble was the 2nd, when he allowed a lead-off double and Will Smith got crossed up on a strikeout to allow another runner to reach. But he escaped that danger and ended the night with the most important concern being the status of his blister.
Unfortunately, Zac Gallen was even more impressive, continuing his season-long dominance. In seven-plus innings, he gave up just a single and two walks, striking out seven Dodgers.
In the 6th, Caleb Ferguson relieved Buehler and picked an unfortunate time to struggle. He got two outs but served up the game’s first run on a solo shot to Christian Walker, and then gave up two more singles. Blake Treinen relieved him and got out of the jam with a grounder. He continued in the 7th, getting a 1-2-3 frame and a strikeout.
Victor Gonzalez got the 9th, walking a batter but keeping the one-run deficit intact. He also got a strikeout and continues to look like a legit power lefty reliever.
Mookie Betts started the game with a single and it was the only hit the Dodgers had … until he came up again in the 9th and marked a breaking ball over the center-field wall to tie it 1-1.
Kenley Jansen took the 10th, of course starting with a runner on second. He got a fly out, but then got into serious trouble after a walk and hitting a batter to load them up. He followed by issuing another walk to force in a run and make it 2-1, but got a pop out and a strikeout to escape the threat, charged with only an unearned run.
That paid off almost immediately in the Dodgers half of the 10th, with Chris Taylor bunting and scoring a run on an error.
After advancing to third, Will Smith came through with a walk-off.
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Joe Davis with the quotable and FanGraphs plug.
AJ Pollock shot dead.
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The Dodgers are now 28-10. The Padres won so the NL West lead is still at 5 games.
The finale will thankfully be at the same time again at 3:40 PM HST/6:40 PM PST/9:40 PM EST, with Clayton Kershaw facing Luke Weaver.
