Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Following an extra innings win, the Dodgers decided they liked that so much they’d do it again, with a tight 2-1 victory on the books against the Mets. Will Smith and Cody Bellinger came up with the big hits for the Dodgers, while Walker Buehler and the pen came up huge for them down the stretch.
The Dodgers have now won six of their last seven and three series in a row.
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With much of the pen unavailable tonight, it was all up to Buehler, not only to be good but also to be good for a long while. Unsurprisingly, he was up to the challenge.
It wasn’t always easy as Buehler actually only had one clean inning in the 3rd, but he worked around minor trouble to start innings in the 1st and 5th. It was in the 4th that he gave up damage with a Michael Conforto solo shot putting the Mets up 1-0.
On the other side, not a lot was going on for the Dodgers as Taijuan Walker was excellent, issuing just walks to Billy McKinney and Buehler of all people through six, and a double play made sure he faced just one over the minimum.
Things seemed to continue in the 7th as he started with an out, but then Smith came up with another big homer, smashing his 17th of the year to tie the game at 1-1, breaking up the no hitter and shutout.
Corey Seager followed with a double and got to third on a wild pitch, then Walker exited the game after issuing a walk to Chris Taylor. Unfortunately, Aaron Loup got Bellinger to chase on a 3-2 pitch for a strikeout to end the threat.
Buehler certainly didn’t have his second clean inning in the 7th, giving up a single off his foot and a walk to set up potential disaster. However, Buehler bared down as he tends to do, getting back-to-back strikeouts and a foul out to complete the outing the Dodgers had to have: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 10 K, 110 Pitches.
Out of the pen for the Mets was Miguel Castro, who absolutely carved the Dodgers in the 8th, taking just 12 pitches to set them down in order, including two strikeouts. Seth Lugo also got a scoreless frame, working around an infield single.
Alex Vesia was first up from the depleted reliever corps, and he was outstanding again, taking just nine pitches to get a strikeout and two fly outs. That included an impressive strikeout of Pete Alonso.
He continued in the 9th, getting the first out before giving way to Phil Bickford, who retired the next two without issue to send things into extras.
Once there, Yennsy Diaz took over from the Mets, getting a generous strikeout to start, but then giving up a double down the line to Bellinger to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in the 10th.
Perhaps surprisingly, Bickford started the 10th, and he responded by providing back-to-back strikeouts to put the Dodgers on the verge. Dave Roberts then bizarrely went to the pen, having Corey Knebel enter to try and get one out. After a battle with Brandon Nimmo he got exactly that with a ground out to end it.
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71-46 on the year and temporarily 4.5 games back in the NL West of the Giants.
The series finale will be at 1:00 PM HT/4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET tomorrow with Max Scherzer (2.67 ERA/3.45 FIP/3.15 xERA) facing Carlos Carrasco (6.75/4.68/4.09 | 9.1 IP).
