Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
While the Dodgers should be celebrating another mega-sweep of the the rival Giants, including pissing off Jarlin Garcia by existing, unfortunately it was marred by a back injury to Clayton Kershaw.
Still, the 5-3 victory makes it eight of their last nine for the Dodgers, five in a row, and a whopping eight consecutive against the Giants.
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The Dodgers were the ones who jumped out to an early lead against Jakob Junis, as a Max Muncy double was singled in by Gavin Lux in the 2nd for a 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately, Kershaw ended up giving it right back in the other half of the inning. After a clean 1st, a Muncy error was followed by a J.D. Davis homer to make it 2-1 for the Giants.
But the Dodgers came back soon after in the 4th, despite some adversity. A Joey Gallo single was followed by a Lux double that saw a bad send by Dino Ebel and Gallo getting thrown out at home. However, a walk from James Outman with two outs was the end of the road for Junis.
That gave Mookie Betts a chance, and against the pen he took full advantage by pummeling a three-run homer to left, his 25th of the year to make it 4-2.
What a celebration.
Of course, the main thing is while Kershaw seemed to be cruising along, when he came out for warmups in the 5th, he threw a pitch and signaled to the dugout that he was done.
Phil Bickford had to enter in the 5th and did admirably with the situation, getting a scoreless inning despite a walk and bunt single.
For no reason, things then got spicy in the 6th, as Garcia struck out Outman to end the inning and then taunted Mookie with the Dodgers hit celebration for whatever reason.
Well, no matter, in the next inning Trea Turner hit a homer to center for a 5-2 lead.
While the bats didn’t get anything more in the game, they didn’t need to, as Chris Martin got a clean 6th, Caleb Ferguson got a clean 7th, and Alex Vesia got a clean 8th to make it nine outs in a row.
Of course, Craig Kimbrel closed it out and that’s when things got messy. A double advanced on a fly out that would’ve been a homer at Dodger Stadium, and a wild pitch scored him to make it 5-3 before he was able to end the game.
Still, it’s Kershaw’s back injury that’s on everybody’s mind.
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The Dodgers are now 72-33 on the year.
| Team | Chase | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Yankees | MLB | 2.5 Up |
| Mets | NL | 5.5 Up |
| Padres | NL West | 12.5 Up |
Tomorrow they head home to welcome the Padres in a series that certainly won’t be overreacted to at all. It’ll start at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET with Tony Gonsolin facing Sean Manaea.
