Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
While it seemed like a Nationals sweep was inevitable just for narrative reasons if nothing else, the Dodgers bounced back in an early game to avoid the sweep in a 7-1 victory to salvage something in series.
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Potential future Dodger Patrick Corbin took the mound today and seemed to be on his way to a relatively easy 1st. After a lead-off double from Mookie Betts, he got a pair of outs without allowing the runner to advance. However, he then walked Will Smith, gave up a single to Justin Turner to score Mookie, followed by a single to Trayce Thompson to score Smith, a double to Hanser Alberto to score both JT and Trayce, an Austin Barnes single, and then Gavin Lux seemed to fly out to right but outfield confusion led to it falling in for a double to score another run.
6-0 just like that.
After a Betts infield single, his second of the game, Corbin’s day was done. However, don’t lose track of the fact that Lux absolutely cannot slide.
Absolute shambles.
Remarkably, the Nationals pen basically shut down the offense after that. In the rest of the innings up to the 8th, they really only faced a threat in the 4th, where they allowed a single, double, and walk, but didn’t allow a run thanks to a double play.
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Most importantly was Andrew Heaney‘s health, and while he didn’t look as dominant as before, he was effective. Heaney had just one clean inning in the 2nd, but only faced any real trouble in the 4th due to two walks. However, he worked out of that and exited afterward due to pitch count limitations.
Well, he’s been great when he’s been on the mound and they need to do whatever it takes: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, 71 Pitches.
Phil Bickford took over in the 5th after closing the game out yesterday, getting a scoreless frame while allowing just a walk. He did get some help in that from Trayce.
Alex Vesia was up next, getting a 1-2-3 frame with two strikeouts in the 6th.
Recent call-up Jake Reed was brought in to eat an inning, and he did that in the 7th, but not before giving up the Nationals run on back-to-back doubles that made it 6-1. He also started the 8th, getting an out but then being removed after a double.
David Price entered and closed out the inning for Reed.
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Circling back to the bats, they did get some insurance in the 8th after a Trayce lead-off walk was advanced to second in the span of two groundouts, and was scored by a Lux single, his third hit of the day to make it 7-1.
Price then came back out for the 9th and got into trouble with a walk and a single, but didn’t give up any further and ended the game with a double play.
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65-32 on the year and 11.5 games up on the Padres in the NL West.
Next up is a trip to Colorado against the Rockies at 2:40 PM HT/5:40 PM PT/8:40 PM ET with Tyler Anderson against Jose Urena.
