Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers completed a four-game sweep of the Diamondbacks with a narrow 3-2 win tonight despite using a pen game. That’s obviously now four games in a row for them, though most importantly it’s a 9-2 record in the era after Mookie Betts sacrificed his nuts.
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With the Dodgers still only having four starters, they decided to go with a bullpen game tonight, starting with David Price. He allowed a single to start but that was erased on a double play, then gave up a double but escaped the 1st without issue. He also allowed a double in the 2nd, but managed to prevent damage, and despite the three hits he was effective.
Merrill Kelly got a 1-2-3 frame in the 1st to start, but Will Smith singled to start the 2nd, and then with one down Albert Pujols drilled a ball oppo and over the fence for his first homer as a Dodger to make it 2-0.
Jimmy Nelson took over for Price in the 3rd and continued his resurgence, striking out the side, and he continued in the 4th with another perfect inning and notching another two strikeouts.
Alex Vesia got the 5th, walking a batter but striking out two in a scoreless inning. Joe Kelly was given the 6th, and he gave up a one-out double to get the tying run to the plate, and that proved important as with two outs Eduardo Escobar took a hanging 0-2 curve and crushed it over the wall to tie the game at 2-2.
After Chris Taylor for some reason thought Betts would catch a ball in center, a diving stop on a grounder by Justin Turner led to an overthrow to first for an error to put runners at the corners.
Victor Gonzalez then entered and escaped disaster with a strikeout, and then also got the 7th with a perfect frame that included another two strikeouts.
Kelly (the D-backs starter) meanwhile continued on into the 7th, because aside from the Pujols homer, he hadn’t really faced any threats from the Dodgers and ended up striking out a career-high 12 on the night. But his dominance changed with the first pitch of the inning, when Smith turned on an inside fastball and yanked a homer down the line to make it 3-2.
Blake Treinen took his normal place in the 8th inning, getting two easy outs before surrendering a single to Escobar, who was pinch-run for by Tim Locastro. He was obviously going since he’s a specialist of sorts in that department, but Smith got him stealing to end the inning.
After the Dodgers got a chance against Joakim Soria in the 8th but didn’t push anything across, Kenley Jansen was given the ball for the third time in four days. The ball continued to come out of his hand well, and he got a strikeout, fly out, and strikeout to end it.
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26-18 now. It’s getting there.
They will now travel to San Francisco to play the Giants, who currently lead the Dodgers in the NL West. The three-game series will start at 3:45 PM HST/6:45 PM PST/9:45 PM EST with Trevor Bauer facing Alex Wood.
