Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers have now taken the first three games of the series against the Diamondbacks after a razor close 3-2 victory. They are now 12-2 in their last 14 games and have won seven consecutive against the D-backs.
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After giving up a whopping eight runs in just two innings his last time out against the Dodgers, Merrill Kelly got off to the worst start imaginable when Mookie Betts led the game off with his 14th homer of the year to re-take sole possession of the NL dinger lead.
But Kelly rebounded nicely from there, albeit with some help from the Dodgers. After getting through the 1st, Kelly then allowed a single to Edwin Rios, who he then picked off. That proved important as Justin Turner immediately doubled and was eventually stranded. The Diamondbacks would immediately take advantage of that mistake.
On the opposite side from Kelly was Tony Gonsolin, arguably the Dodgers best starter this year. He began well with a 1-2-3 frame in the 1st, but the 2nd was a mess as he allowed a single to David Peralta, and then triples to both Jake McCarthy and Geraldo Perdomo to put the Dodgers down 2-1 all of a sudden.
But it was the bats of the Dodgers that came back next after a pair of scoreless frames for Kelly. The 5th started with a Gavin Lux single and then later Freddie Freeman drew a walk to set the table. Trea Turner followed with a bloop single to center off the end of the bat to plate Lux and move Freeman to third on a great piece of baserunning, which Will Smith took advantage of with a sacrifice fly for a 3-2 lead.
The D-backs pen entered in the 6th and did remarkably well, shutting out the Dodgers for four innings to close things out, leading to the tight finish.
Meanwhile, Gonsolin settled in and showed the progress he’s made this year. He had three clean innings in his final four, allowing just a double the rest of the way. While he’s had some great fortune this year with runners on, he’s also made a ton of progress in at least being a rock-solid rotation option: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 92 Pitches.
In relief of him was Justin Bruihl against three consecutive lefties in the D-backs order, and he dispatched them on just seven pitches, inducing two grounders and getting a strikeout in the 7th. Alex Vesia then got the 8th, and while he issued a walk he also punched out the final two batters in his scoreless frame, including an emphatic final one.
The 9th? Well, that belonged to Daniel Hudson, as Craig Kimbrel labored through 26 pitches yesterday for the save. Things didn’t start well as he grooved a ton of pitches to Ketel Marte, who eventually smashed a lead-off double, but Hudson rebounded with a groundout, and then a pair of strikeouts to slam the door.
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Dodger fans travel well to say the least.
The fuck.
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This is honestly one of the funniest stories to ever come out of baseball.
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The Dodgers improve to 32-14 on the year and are temporarily 2.5 games up on the Padres in the NL West.
The series finale will be played early at 10:10 AM HT/1:10 PM PT/4:10 PM ET with Tyler Anderson going for a sweep against famous abandoner Zach Davies.
