Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After two brutal losses in a row to the rival Giants, the Dodgers made it their third in a row pathetic showing and fourth straight loss after blowing another lead late, coming back to tie it late, and then completely imploding in a 9-6 loss to the Rockies.
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The Dodgers seem to have faced Chi Chi Gonzalez in every other game this month, and they faced him again tonight against the Rockies. That familiarity perhaps showed itself early.
Chris Taylor doubled to lead off the 1st, but Gonzalez rebounded with two outs. However, that’s when the barrage started, as Will Smith and Cody Bellinger had back-to-back doubles to drive in a run each, and following a walk of AJ Pollock, Matt Beaty singled to cash in another and make it 3-0.
For the Dodgers, David Price continued to build up his pitch count, and he cruised through the first two innings of the game in order. That came to an end quickly in the 3rd when Elias Diaz led off with a no-doubt homer to cut the lead to 3-1.
Fortunately, Justin Turner didn’t waste any time getting the run back, smashing a homer to start the 4th for a 4-1 score.
Price continued on, working around his own error in the 3rd and two singles in the 4th. After a clean 5th, he appeared to start wearing down a bit in the 6th. After getting the first two men of the inning, he allowed a big homer to Trevor Story and then walked Charlie Blackmon to bring his day to an end: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 74 Pitches.
Phil Bickford relieved Price and struggled a bit, allowing back-to-back singles to score an inherited run and cut the lead to 4-3 before getting the final out.
After Gonzalez kept the bats quiet in the 4th and 5th, Ben Bowden took over in the 6th and immediately surrendered a triple to Bellinger and a single to Pollock to make it 5-3.
Tyler Kinley got the last batter of the 6th, and Justin Lawrence got a scoreless 7th for the Rockies. Mychal Givens took over in the 8th, getting into some trouble with a single and a stolen base from Sheldon Neuse but working out of the jam.
Meanwhile, Alex Vesia continued his impressive stretch for the Dodgers in the 7th, going 1-2-3 to maintain his perfect July.
Speaking of recalls, Brusdar Graterol is also back up, but he did not look as sharp. He did get two outs, but he gave up a single and then a double to Blackmon to cut the lead to 5-4.
That brought in Darien Nunez, who immediately gave up a single to Ryan McMahon to tie the game at 5-5 before he picked him off to close the 8th. Nunez continued in the 9th with Kenley Jansen and Blake Treinen seemingly not available, and after the first two outs things looked well. However, Sam Hilliard launched a 1-2 changeup deep into the night to make it 6-5.
Daniel Bard then came in to close things out, and both Austin Barnes and Taylor battled him for 13 pitches, with both coming up with singles. On his first pitch to Billy McKinney he uncorked a wild pitch to move both runners up, and after another deep battle he walked McKinney to load the bases. Turner then also worked a 3-2 count and managed to work a walk to tie the game at 6-6.
That brought up Smith, who surprisingly struck out on three pitches. Neuse, last night’s goat, swung through back-to-back hanging sliders for a strikeout. Pollock then followed up by striking out as well, keeping the game tied.
Jimmie Sherfy took over in the 10th, giving up a single to Story to immediately score a run and make it 7-6. He then surrendered a two-run shot to Blackmon to make it 9-6 and effectively end the game.
Lucas Gilbreath closed it out for the Rockies without drama.
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59-40 … unfortunately.
The two teams will do it again tomorrow at 3:10 PM HST/6:10 PM PST/9:10 PM EST with Tony Gonsolin facing Kyle Freeland.
