Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After all the hoopla of this series, the Dodgers have relatively cruised to back-to-back victories over the Padres with today’s 8-3 win. They fought through some early sloppiness and took advantage of the opposition doing the same.
They have now won seven in a row and 10 of their last 11.
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The Dodgers were the ones who struck first again, this time against Padres starter Mike Clevinger with Will Smith leading off the 2nd by smashing his 16th homer of the year for a 1-0 lead.
The next inning saw Smith drive in another run. After a one-out single from Mookie Betts, Trea Turner reached on an infield single to put two on, and after a fly out made it runners on the corners, Smith came up with a lunging two-out single to make it 2-0.
Meanwhile, Andrew Heaney made his third start in a row for the Dodgers for the first time all year.
It’s August.
Still, when he’s been healthy, he’s been great, and that mostly continued tonight. After allowing a double to start the game, he then retired nine Padres in a row.
So he seemed to be cruising along, but then the 4th happened. An infield single was followed by a lineout, and then a double-play ball handcuffed Gavin Lux for an error that put two on. That was immediately taken advantage of by a Brandon Drury double to score a run and deepen the trouble. A Jake Cronenworth groundout scored another to tie the game, and a Wil Myers single the other way capped off the three-run inning and a 3-2 Padres lead.
Heaney would eventually exit after topping 80 pitches as he continues to build up, exiting with two out in the 5th and a runner on: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R (0 ER), 1 BB, 3 K, 81 Pitches.
Chris Martin made sure Heaney didn’t add more runs to his total as he struck out Manny Machado to end the frame.
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That bought some time for the offense to come back. Clevinger found trouble in the 5th behind a Mookie single and stolen base, and he was eventually advanced to third on the following two outs, but it didn’t seem like a major threat. However, Clevinger then hit Smith to corner the runners, and he stole second on what looked like a rundown attempt to draw throws, but Max Muncy made that all irrelevant by smashing his 11th homer of the year, a three-run shot to make it 5-3.
In the 6th, Martin continued and got two outs, continuing to do his job and handing things off to Alex Vesia, who got four outs and got the Dodgers through the 7th, allowing just a single and error.
Meanwhile, the bats didn’t get much after knocking Clevinger out with Muncy’s homer, but they got insurance in the 7th with help from a Machado error on a Trea grounder after a Mookie lead-off single. The Dodgers then manufactured some runs with a pair of sacrifice flies from Freddie Freeman and Smith to push the lead to 7-3.
On the Dodgers side, Evan Phillips took over in the 8th and faced rare trouble of his own making. He issued a walk and then a bloop single, but then got serious, getting a foul out, fly out, and strikeout to keep the scoreline intact.
Perhaps motivated by a potential Craig Kimbrel appearance, the Dodgers added to their lead in the 9th behind doubles from Lux and Cody Bellinger to make it 8-3.
Reyes Moronta entered in the 9th to finish the Padres off, getting a 1-2-3 frame to end it.
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Hanser Alberto continues to be a delight.
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The Dodgers get to 74-33 on the year, which is … decent.
| Team | Chase | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Yankees | MLB | 4.5 Up |
| Mets | NL | 5.5 Up |
| Padres | NL West | 14.5 Up |
The series will conclude with the Dodgers going for the sweep at 1:00 PM HT/4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET with Tyler Anderson squaring off against Yu Darvish.
