Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
A team of streaks recently, the Dodgers followed a four-game losing streak with a nine-game winning streak and then a three-game losing streak. Hopefully this means another winning streak will now follow after a 6-1 victory over the Marlins to avoid an unlikely road sweep.
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Coming off back-to-back quality outings, Julio Urias was greeted rudely to the game as Jazz Chisholm took the third pitch he saw and destroyed a ball to right for an early 1-0 lead. With two outs later in the inning, the Marlins got a walk and single, but Urias escaped worse trouble early and settled down nicely.
Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara has been great for the Marlins this year, entering the game with a sub-3 ERA. However, the only reason it’s not lower is a disastrous start against the Dodgers earlier this year. He doesn’t seem to fancy pitching against this team.
After working out of two-out trouble in the 1st due to a walk and single, he coasted through perfect 2nd and 3rd frames. The 4th led to a tie game, though not really through fault of his own. Matt Beaty reached on an error to start and stole second, then with two outs Chris Taylor drilled a single into center to tie the game and advanced to second on a hilarious throw from Starling Marte. After an infield single cornered the runners, Alcantara escaped the inning.
Alcantara could not, however, escape blame for the damage that came in the 5th. The Dodgers went station-to-station, but Urias, Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, and Beaty had consecutive singles to start the inning, the latter driving in a run to make it 2-1. That was the end of the road for Alcantara, who was relieved by David Hess.
After a pop out, Will Smith hit a sacrifice fly to the edge of the track in left-center to plate another, and Taylor doubled off the third-base bag for yet another run. After a Gavin Lux walk, Zach McKinstry drilled a ball on one-hop to Chisholm, who got handcuffed for an error and two more runs crossed to make it 6-1 before Urias himself ended the inning in his second at-bat of it.
Gimme five. pic.twitter.com/5ss6TOyueP
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 8, 2021
Speaking of Urias, after the 1st, he allowed just three baserunners (a walk, a single, an error) over the next four frames. He did surrender two singles in the 6th, but managed to work out of that trouble without much issue.
Needing to go deep into the game for the sake of the pen, Urias continued on in the 7th as well, cruising through a 1-2-3 frame. Urias turned in his best start in a while tonight, giving length and dominance when the Dodgers needed both: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K, 101 Pitches.
Back to the lineup, they weren’t doing much, as Nick Neidert entered for the 6th and ended up pitching the the final four innings. He worked around a single and a wild pitch in the 6th and two singles in the 8th, keeping the score the same at 6-1 until the end.
In relief of Urias, Dave Roberts wasn’t taking any chances, going with Blake Treinen in the 8th. Amusingly, he got into trouble with a pair of singles surrendered, though didn’t get hurt by it. Garrett Cleavinger was tasked with getting a drama-free 9th, and he did just that by getting two ground outs and a strikeout.
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The Dodgers are now 54-34 on the year and are 1 game back in the NL West to the Giants.
An early game due to travel, they’ll be heading home to Los Angeles for a three-game series against the Diamondbacks before the All-Star break. The game will start at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST and both teams will be going to their pens. Should be … interesting.
