Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After going through their first losing streak of the season, the Dodgers rebounded immediately with a streak of their own, and after completing another comeback (technically) today in a 12-3 blowout win over the Diamondbacks, have now won four games in a row in that fashion.
Obviously it also means they completed the doubleheader sweep. Finally, you can rest.
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Things actually started off extremely poorly for the Dodgers and Tyler Anderson, as he got the first two outs in the 1st but then gave up back-to-back solo shots to Jordan Luplow and Christian Walker.
Remarkably Anderson gave up nothing the rest of the way, and even more remarkably he gave the Dodgers needed depth by going seven strong. After a clean 2nd inning, he gave up a single in every frame from the 3rd to the 6th but nothing else, closing with a 1-2-3 inning in the 7th for a surprisingly dominating outing.
7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 82 Pitches.
Meanwhile, Merrill Kelly entered this game having had an excellent 2022, giving up eight earned runs on the season. Well, he gave up eight in two innings against the Dodgers today.
After his team got the early lead, the Dodgers got it right back behind a Mookie Betts walk, Freddie Freeman double, and Trea Turner single to tie the game.
The 2nd was a disaster for Kelly and a boon for the Dodgers. Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger drew back-to-back walks to kick things off, then a Gavin Lux double scored both of them for the lead. After a two-out intentional walk to Freddie, Trea made them pay with a single to plate Gavin, and then Edwin Rios bombed his fourth homer of the year for a six spot and an 8-2 lead.
That knocked him out of the game, and though the Dodgers did threaten with a double and walk in the 3rd, they couldn’t get anything for the next three off Caleb Smith.
But then old friend Edwin Uceta entered the game and the gates opened again. The Dodgers loaded the bases to start the 6th behind back-to-back singles from Austin Barnes and Lux, then a walk to Mookie. Freddie hit another double to score two, and then a run scored on an error on a Trea grounder to push the lead to 12-2.
In the 8th the Dodgers tacked on one more. Betts reached on an error and then Freddie came through with his third double of the day to push his wRC+ to 160 and putting himself back in the top 15 hitters of all baseball.
With Anderson’s exit, Phil Bickford then got the 8th and allowed two singles to start but got out of it without damage thanks to a double play.
The scoreline meant that Hanser Alberto then came in to complete the game in the 9th.
He actually almost got a scoreless inning. He gave up back-to-back one-out singles to corner the runners and then induced a grounder, but the Dodgers couldn’t turn two so a run scored for the 12-3 final.
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Big oof from me.
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24-12 on the year, a 108-win pace, and a 1-game lead in the NL West over the Padres.
The Dodgers will go for the mega sweep tomorrow over the Diamondbacks in a day game of all things with a 10:10 AM HT/1:10 PM PT/4:10 PM ET start and Walker Buehler facing Zach Davies (who as it turns out is a shithead).
