Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers have now swept the season series against the Twins, notching a mini-sweep against the Twins in April and then another at home today with an 8-5 victory.
They’ve now won 10 in a row and 13 of their last 14 games.
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Against Sonny Gray, the Dodgers secured another lead, scoring the game’s first runs in the 2nd. Another homer from Max Muncy, his 13th, led off the inning. Then Justin Turner doubled, but was thrown out at third on a Gavin Lux groundball. No matter, as Lux stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error, then came home on a Cody Bellinger sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.
Gray settled in for a bit, getting scoreless innings in the 3rd and 4th.
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In place of the injured Clayton Kershaw, Ryan Pepiot was promoted to take his place, coming off two great appearances in AAA. He got off to a nice start with two scoreless frames, but immediately ran into trouble in the 3rd with a walk and a single, then Jorge Polanco stepped up a bombed a three-run shot down the line in right for a 3-2 Twins lead.
The lead for the Twins was extended in the 5th when Gary Sanchez led off with a homer of his own to make it 4-2 to Minnesota.
Pepiot then walked the next batter before getting a lineout, which ended his night. Not his best effort, unsurprisingly due to command: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 4 K, 84 Pitches.
In relief was Alex Vesia, who didn’t seem to have command either. He issued a seven-pitch walk, took eight pitches to get a foul out, and then after six-pitches gave up a scorcher to third that Muncy was able to knock down for an infield single to load the bases. Vesia then fell behind 2-0 and 3-1, but battled and got a lineout to center to keep the score intact in the 5th.
The main downside was Muncy’s health.
Anyway, the bats made that escape pay off immediately in the bottom half of the inning. With one down, Mookie Betts smoked a double and Trea Turner immediately followed by singling to left to make it 4-3.
Later on, with two down and after Trea stole second, Will Smith came up clutch with a double in to the opposite field gap to tie the game at 4-4 and knock Gray out of the game.
Against Michael Fulmer out of the Twins pen in the 6th, Chris Taylor gave the Dodgers the 5-4 lead with his seventh homer of the year.
They added to the lead in the 7th in somewhat dramatic fashion. After a one-out double by Freddie Freeman, Griffin Jax issued an intentional walk to Smith. That’s when Joey Gallo pinch-hit for Hanser Alberto and made Dave Roberts look like a genius, crushing his 13th homer of the year for a three-run shot and a bunch of insurance. Gotta feel great for him. 8-4.
Oh right, while all this was going on, the Dodgers pen was doing its job. David Price had a clean inning in the 6th, and Evan Phillips continued to be dominant against the best the Twins had to offer in the 7th, including two strikeouts.
Chris Martin got the 8th and would’ve had a clean inning of his own, but a Trea throwing error was the only thing preventing that.
Craig Kimbrel then closed things out in the 9th, getting two outs but then giving up a double and a single on a comebacker that put runners at the corners. After defensive indifference put runners on second and third, he uncorked a wild pitch to cut the lead to 8-5 before finally getting a fly out to end it.
Geez.
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Charlie Freeman is ready.
What.
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77-33 on the year, which is ridiculous.
| Team | Chase | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Mets | MLB | 5 Up |
| Mets | NL | 5 Up |
| Padres | NL West | 16 Up |
The Dodgers have a day off tomorrow to travel to Kansas City for a series against the Royals, which will start on Friday at 2:10 PM HT/5:10 PM PT/8:10 PM ET with Tony Gonsolin facing Daniel Lynch.
