Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers are facing an uphill battle to win the NL West, but they are fighting for it at least, beating the playoff-less Padres, 2-1, to start the series.
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Walker Buehler is still having a career year, but since the start of September he’s had 7.32 ERA in four starts. He definitely wanted to get back on track, and he did just that.
Through five innings, Buehler faced just one over the minimum, allowing just an infield single and a walk. He faced trouble for the first time in the 6th, giving up a single and a walk, but then got Fernando Tatis Jr. to ground into an inning-ending double play. Eric Hosmer had a two-out double in the 7th that he chopped down the line and was only safe after a swim move to avoid the tag, but Buehler worked around that with ease.
7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 90 Pitches.
Padres starter Yu Darvish has been disastrous for months now and he didn’t look sharp again tonight.
The Dodgers got on the board early with doubles in the 1st from Mookie Betts and then Trea Turner for a 1-0 lead.
They added to the lead in the 3rd behind Trea again, singling to start the inning, eventually advancing to second and third, then scoring on a single by AJ Pollock to make it 2-0.
Darvish was actually done after four despite only giving up the two runs because it was a minor miracle that he only gave up those runs. Darvish threw 85 pitches, giving up five hits and four walks, facing 11 batters with RISP for the game.
After that, the Dodgers continued to struggle on offense. Reiss Knehr got the 5th and 6th scoreless and Javy Guerra (not the old friend, unlike what Tim Neverett tried to tell everybody) got two outs in the 7th, while Ross Detwiler closed it out and also got the 8th. They did get four batters to the plate with RISP, but weren’t able to drive any runs in.
Thankfully, in addition to Buehler, the pen took over and shut it down.
Joe Kelly threw a scoreless 8th and Blake Treinen closed it out in the 9th, but not without giving up a solo homer and then a walk and stolen base to make it tight before closing it out at 2-1.
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Trea is fun.
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101-56, but still 2 games behind the Giants in the NL West.
The two teams play tomorrow again at 4:00 PM HT/7:00 PM PT/10:00 PM ET with Max Scherzer facing Ryan Weathers.
