Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Today’s 7-2 loss to the Mets ends a nine-game winning streak overall and a six-game winning streak against the Mets. The Dodgers have, however, still won five consecutive series, which is nice.
Quite frankly, they just got beat today. It happens. Well, at least there was this funny Cody Bellinger story regarding their NFL fantasy league draft order.
David Price started for the Dodgers, having been solid but very unspectacular this year, and it was kinda fitting that the Dodgers’ RISP luck came back to bite them with him on the mound.
Price gave up a lead-off walk, a Javier Baez double scored a run (not helped by AJ Pollock attempting to play left), a J.D. Davis single scored another, and a Jonathan Villar bloop single plated a third run to make it 3-0 early. Thankfully Price did end up rebounding nicely, getting a scoreless 2nd and then getting clean frames in the 3rd and 4th.
On the other side was Marcus Stroman, who has been excellent for the Mets this year. His peripherals aren’t quite as good, but his pitchability is off the charts.
After getting their first baserunner in the 2nd on a walk, and their first hit in the 3rd (from David Price!), the Dodgers finally got a rally going in the 4th. A one-out single from Corey Seager started things, and a two-out infield single put runners on the corners. Stroman then pitched around AJ Pollock for a walk to load the bases, and Cody Bellinger actually took advantage of the chance, pounding a single into right to score two and cut the deficit to 3-2.
Unfortunately, some kind of botched play then followed as Cody went for second on a steal attempt, stopped in the middle as if to allow Pollock time to score. However, AJ didn’t go and Cody was easily tagged for the final out. That just burned Billy McKinney, who was pinch hitting, for nothing. Following that, Stroman rebounded to cruise through perfect 5th and 6th frames to end his impressive outing.
In relief of Price, Brusdar Graterol entered and he had to escape two jams. In the 5th, things were relatively simple, back-to-back singles with one out was erased by a double play. However, a hit by pitch and double started the 6th, the latter of which only didn’t cost a run due to Bellinger getting to the ball quickly. Dave Roberts surprisingly let Graterol continue on, and he responded with a strikeout, a ground out into the drawn-in infield with a play at home, an intentional walk to load the bases, and then getting Stroman to ground back to him.
Phil Bickford got the first two outs of the 7th, but then gave up a double to Baez that should’ve been an out if Pollock made a throw that was on line. Instead, a two-run homer was smashed to make it 5-2. Neftali Feliz was next out in the 8th to make his debut as a Dodger, and it went as smooth as possible with a 1-2-3 frame that included a strikeout.
Shane Greene then made his own Dodger debut, which didn’t go nearly as well, as he followed up getting an out to start the 9th by allowing a single and hitting the next two batters to load things up and then walking a run in to make it 6-2. Victor Gonzalez followed and got a double-play ball, but didn’t get a double play and that led to another run charged to Greene, though he avoided further mess with a strikeout. 7-2.
In relief of Stroman, Jeurys Familia entered and got a scoreless inning in the 7th despite giving up a double. Trevor May got a flawless 8th, and Edwin Diaz closed things out without drama in the 9th.
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The Dodgers fall to 78-47 on the year and end up 2.5 games back of the Giants in the NL West.
After a day off tomorrow to travel to San Diego, they’ll play three against the Padres starting at 4:00 PM HT/7:00 PM PT/10:00 PM ET. The two teams haven’t named starters yet and dual pen games are a possibility.
