Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Despite getting a major gift from Ra, the sun god, the Dodgers were unable to do much of anything as a pair of late homers sunk Julio Urias against the Cubs in a 3-2 loss.
It’s April, but being literally mid and dropping series to the Cubs at home is … less than ideal.
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The Dodgers lineup has struggled something awful against lefties so far this year, and that didn’t change against Drew Smyly. They did strike first in the 3rd behind Chris Taylor donging off the foul pole to make it 1-0, though they also stranded a double that followed.
A clean 4th was followed by a pair of walks in the 5th that the Dodgers also wasted, and after getting two outs in the 6th, Smyly’s night was over.
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His opposite number was Julio, who didn’t have a key pitch in his changeup yet he managed to be generally effective anyway. He faced just one over the minimum into the 3rd, his only clean frame, thanks to erasing a single in the 1st with a pickoff and working around a 2nd inning walk.
From there the sledding got progressively tougher, as a single and a steal led to a scoring chance in the 4th that he navigated past. In the 5th, a one-out error by Miguel Vargas was followed by a stolen base, and the runner advanced on a groundout. Urias then got unlucky on a Luis Torrens roller back to him for an infield single and a 1-1 game. A clean single to left followed and a routine grounder to short led to another infield single and a bases loaded scenario before he was able to escape that threat.
That seemed to tax him a bit as he inched closer to 100 pitches, and despite getting the first two outs in the 6th, those pitches and his lack of a changeup perhaps factored in to the back-to-back homers he gave up to Patrick Wisdom and Cody Bellinger to give the Cubs a 3-1 lead. After another single, his day was done.
5.2 IP, 8 H, 3 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 6 K, 100 Pitches
Brusdar Graterol entered in relief and got a punchie to end the 6th, then got two more in the 7th, including an impressive one on a nasty slider. There was a “double” mixed in there that was more on the Dodgers just giving up on a ball down the line.
The Dodgers pen continued on in the 8th, as Caleb Ferguson worked around a single for a clean frame, and Evan Phillips closed the books on the Cubs in the 9th with one of his own despite a walk and a single.
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Meanwhile, the Cubs pen took over for Smyly and finished off the 6th without issue. But the 7th became an adventure after a one-out walk to Taylor and Austin Barnes tallying his first hit of the season put runners at the corners. Mookie Betts then appeared to hit a sacrifice fly at best to right, but Seiya Suzuki lost one in the sun and it dropped for a single to make it 3-2 and keep the threat alive.
The Dodgers were unable to take advantage of this as Freddie Freeman struck out for the third time, J.D. Martinez reached on a generous infield single to short, and Max Muncy struck out with the bases loaded to end the frame.
In the 9th, it didn’t help that they got hosed on all three strikeout calls, but it was a mediocre showing anyway.
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8-8, lol.
Tomorrow the Dodgers will welcome the Mets for a three-game series starting at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET, as Dustin May will look to continue his great year against David Peterson.
