Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Coming off a mini-sweep of the Mariners, the Dodgers were looking for an honest-to-good winning streak to start the series against the Marlins. Thanks to an explosive eight-run inning, they did just that, taking a 9-6 game to run their winning streak to three.
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Sandy Alcantara was looking to continue his nice run to start the season, but boy did things go south in a hurry. After the Dodgers couldn’t capitalize on a quality chance in the 1st, they exploded for an eight-run 2nd frame. A Chris Taylor walk was followed by a Gavin Lux double, and AJ Pollock singled to plate the game’s first run. Austin Barnes then doubled off the top of the wall to plate another, Clayton Kershaw singled against a drawn-in infield for a run, and Mookie Betts yanked one down the line for a run-scoring double of his own. After Corey Seager singled a runner home, an out was finally recorded after seven hitters. But that relief didn’t last long as Max Muncy stepped up to the plate and hit a towering three-run homer to make it 8-0 and knock Alcantara out.
The only downside of the inning is that Pollock seemed to re-aggravate his hamstring injury.
Staked to a massive early advantage, the Dodgers could’ve used to nice and easy win, but Kershaw struggled to keep the distance. He surrendered three singles and a homer in the 3rd, with the damage coming with two outs, to get the Marlins right back into it with a four-run inning. Then in the 5th, a walk and two doubles led to another run scoring to make it an 8-5 game.
To his credit, he did miss a lot of bats and gutted through six innings, but I doubt Kershaw would be happy with his line: 6 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 1 BB (1 HBP), 11 K, 105 Pitches.
Blake Treinen entered to relief of Kershaw to get the 7th, and cruised through the inning, partially thanks to a diving catch by Betts.
Meanwhile, the Marlins pen was minimizing the damage, with Zach Pop getting five outs without issue and John Curtiss facing a threat in the 4th but getting six scoreless outs. Adam Cimber continued the trend in the 6th, but he came out in the 7th and got in a ton of trouble after back-to-back singles from Justin Turner and Muncy was followed by an infield single from Taylor to load the bases and knock Cimber out.
Ross Detwiler entered, and he’s still not a sinker-balling righty, but he did get out of the 7th only allowing one extra run on his own errant throw to make it 9-5.
Dennis Santana started the 8th but did not finish it, which was surprising since he recorded two quick outs to start. However, he then allowed one sharp single, one single against the shift, and walked a man to load the bases, bringing leverage back into it. He was relieved by Victor Gonzalez, who hit Sandy Leon with a backfoot slider to force a run in and make it 9-6, but he rebounded by getting a strikeout to end the threat.
After Anthony Bender got a clean 8th for the Marlins, the Dodgers turned to Kenley Jansen to close things out with a three-run lead. He got a strikeout on a 97 mph fastball that got paint, a jam pop, and then got another strikeout on a perfectly located 93 mph cutter.
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Peeping that dong.
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The Dodgers are now 21-17 and have won three straight.
The second game of the series will be at 3:10 PM HST/6:10 PM PST/9:10 PM EST with Trevor Bauer facing a starter yet to be determined because it’ll likely a pen game.
