Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
If the Dodgers were ever going to go on a run, it would be this stretch of games, and after getting off to a nice start yesterday they eked one out against the Pirates tonight by a 2-1 score to take the series and hopefully start a winning streak.
——
Former Rockies pitcher Tyler Anderson faced off against the Dodgers yet again, this time for the Pirates. Unfortunately for him, that also meant he had to face Justin Turner again, and he started the scoring tonight by smashing a homer to left-center that made it 1-0 early.
JT continued to own him in the 3rd, smashing yet another homer, and making it 16-for-32 against him in his career.
Aside from that Anderson didn’t give up anything, and in fact didn’t face a batter with a RISP until his last inning in the 6th, working out of that minor trouble as well. Perhaps most impressively, he got JT out in his third time around.
Unfortunately, the bats couldn’t get much going aside from JT. Phillip Evans and Clay Holmes both gave up a single and a walk in their innings, but the Dodgers couldn’t capitalize. Sam Howard got a scoreless 8th and then one out in the 9th before David Bednar closed the book on the lineup.
Meanwhile, Tony Gonsolin made his return to the Dodgers after being setback by a shoulder injury. He certainly looked rusty, but also did hit 95 mph and suffered from some bad luck.
He was greeted by a single to start, then with one out it seemed like Albert Pujols had a prime double-play chance, but they couldn’t turn it after Albert kinda lobbed it to second. After a walk, Pujols had another chance to end the inning on a liner hit right at him, but he kinda just whiffed at it for something that was ruled a single and scored a run. Gonsolin then walked a man to load the bases but got out of it with a strikeout.
Tony then got the two outs in the 2nd, but walked three in a row to load the bases and that spelled the end of his night. Victor Gonzalez entered and gave up a line drive but right at AJ Pollock in left for the out. He followed that up with a 1-2-3 3rd inning.
David Price was next up in the pen line, getting a perfect 4th before giving up a single and hitting a batter in the 5th but keeping things at 2-1. Joe Kelly gave up a walk in the 6th but otherwise managed to protect the advantage thanks to having one of his good days.
Then Blake Treinen entered for the 7th and did issue a one-out walk, but faced the minimum thanks to Chris Taylor turning a double play. He continued in the 8th, getting the first two outs before Dave Roberts turned to Kenley Jansen, who ended the frame with a strikeout. He obviously continued in the 9th trying to make that one-run lead hold up, starting out by walking a batter but getting a ground out, fly out, and then a line out back to him to end it.
He was throwing hard.
——
No comment.
——
With both the Giants and the Padres losing, the Dodgers are now in sole possession of second place in the NL West, two games behind San Francisco. They are now 36-25 on the year.
The Dodgers will go for the sweep over the Pirates at the ungodly hour of 6:35 AM HST/9:35 AM PST/12:35 PM EST. Julio Urias will look to bounce back from a rough stretch against Mitch Keller.
