Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers saw their three-game winning streak come to an end behind a rather weak lineup and some early mistakes in a 5-3 loss to the Rockies.
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The bats have got to Rockies starter Kyle Freeland pretty consistently this year and they started early today. A quick strike with two outs happened with a Freddie Freeman infield single and a Will Smith double to score him.
But Freeland was given the lead after Clayton Kershaw took the mound in the 1st. While he has struggled historically at Coors Field, today was a bit different. He gave up an infield single and then got back-to-back outs, but another infield single put him in some danger. That was cashed in on a Max Muncy error and then a Randal Grichuk single plated another before Mookie Betts ended any further mess with another amazing throw.
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That lead didn’t last for long. With one out in the 3rd, Trea Turner smashed his 16th homer of the year to tie the game.
Freeman followed with a double and advanced to third on a bobble, which was capitalized on by a Hanser Alberto single for a 3-2 lead. But that was all the Dodgers offense managed against him through six innings in what was a quality outing for Freeland.
Kershaw then appeared to put it into cruise control mode, as after the 1st he retired 12 of the 14 batters he faced through the 5th, allowing just an infield single and hitting a batter. But the 6th was a mess, as with one-out he allowed back-to-back singles, then Grichuk smashed a triple the other way to tie the game at 4-4 before Elias Diaz singled for a 5-4 lead to the Rockies and knocked Kershaw out of the game.
Caleb Ferguson entered to stop the bleeding and did exactly that by rolling a double play. He continued in the 7th and got two outs before Jake Reed entered to get the final out of the 8th. Phil Bickford managed to keep the score the same with a scoreless frame of his own to close the book on the Rockies.
Unfortunately, Lucas Gilbreath, Alex Colome, and Daniel Bard shut the Dodgers down over the final three and handed them the L.
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67-33 on the year and still 12 games up on the Padres in the NL West.
The series concludes with an early game tomorrow at 9:10 AM HT/12:10 PM PT/3:10 PM ET with Tony Gonsolin facing German Marquez.
