Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After having their 10-game win streak against the Padres ended in extras last night, the Dodgers bounced back in an early game to hopefully start a new streak in a 10-2 victory.
Clayton Kershaw was solid, but the real star today was Cody Bellinger, who homered twice and drove in four runs.
He …. he back?
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Starting for the Padres was Sean Manaea, who has been great for them so far this year. However, the Dodgers got started early with Mookie Betts singling off the first pitch, advancing on an error, and eventually coming home on a Justin Turner sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead. After the Dodgers went down quietly in the 2nd, Mookie got on base again through a walk and Freddie Freeman bombed his third homer of the year to right for a 3-0 lead.
They would then add on in the 4th when Cody hit his third homer of the year, and off a tough lefty to boot. That made it 4-0 and gave the Dodgers some breathing room.
Clayton Kershaw got into a bit of early trouble after the first two batters of the game reached, but he escaped the 1st with a double play and had retired nine in a row by the 4th inning. However, he got back into trouble that inning after he allowed three singles that plated a run and cut the lead to 4-1, but he importantly managed to limit the damage to just that.
Kershaw would then bounce back for a scoreless 5th, and that would spell the end of his day thanks to a sizable lead: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 75 Pitches.
Oh right, the reason the lead with sizable. Manaea continued on in the 5th but he wouldn’t make it through. After getting an out, he gave up back-to-back singles to Trea Turner and Justin Turner (no relation), and then walked Max Muncy to load the bases.
That was it for him as Dinelson Lamet entered and he looked like he might escape with minimal damage after he got Chris Taylor for just a sacrifice fly. However, Bellinger remained hot and smashed a breaking ball to dead center for a three-run homer (his fourth) to put him into the team lead and put the Dodgers up 8-1.
The pain didn’t stop there for the Padres, as Pedro Avila entered in the 6th and immediately hit Austin Barnes with a pitch and then walked Mookie. Trea then grounded into what seemed like an out, but an error by Jake Cronenworth plated a run. Then JT followed by singling to load the bases, and Max plated another insurance run with a groundout to make it 10-1. Amusingly, Avila ended his outing by retiring eight straight. To close the book on the Dodgers, making his MLB debut in the 9th, Ray Kerr got the side in order.
For the Dodgers pen, Justin Bruihl got a clean 6th, but gave up a single in the 7th and was unfortunate to get charged with a run. Reyes Moronta relieved him and a run came home on a double and a groundout that cut things to 10-2.
No worries, as Garrett Cleavinger worked around a triple and a walk for a scoreless 8th, and Craig Kimbrel got some work in to close things out in, facing the minimum after … whatever this is happened.
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Near, far, wherever you are.
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The Dodgers are now 11-4 on the year and notch a series win.
They now travel to Arizona to face the struggling Diamondbacks tomorrow at 3:40 PM HT/6:40 PM PT/9:40 PM ET. It’ll be Walker Buehler against a horrible offense (jinx) and Merrill Kelly.
