Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Well, Friday’s obnoxiously early start for those of us in the Pacific Time Zone (or even worse for people like Chad) didn’t get off to a great start and really only accelerated into a disaster from there.
While Julio Urias struggled, Drew Smyly was essentially untouchable and had a chance at the 24th perfect game in baseball history. A 3-foot, 32.9 mph roller toward third base opened the 8th inning, as the Dodgers avoided being the victim of a perfect game for the fourth time in franchise history.
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Smyly came out and absolutely dominated the Dodgers’ offense through the first 7 innings of the game and truly his entire outing. After Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman put balls in play to start the game, the next six Dodgers struck out as Smyly eventually went 21 up, 21 down to open the game.
J.D. Martinez went down on a sinker in the 1st, as did Miguel Vargas in the 2nd, with Max Muncy and James Outman missing against curves. Trayce Thompson and Luke Williams missed on a sinker and curve respectively, as you can see right here.
Smyly struck out four more in his 7 2/3 innings of work, with the Dodgers’ first base runner coming when David Peralta did this to open the 8th.
With Peralta on first, Smyly got a pop out and his 10th and final strikeout before David Ross pulled him at 103 pitches.
Down 13-0, the Dodgers second baserunner came as Austin Wynns walked with one away in the 9th and their RF-2B-SS reached on one as well. With Wynns and Betts at second and first, Chris Taylor struck out and first baseman Jason Heyward lined out to thankfully end the game.
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As I mentioned above, things did not go well for Urias.
Walking Dansby Swanson on five pitches and a 3-2 double for Ian Happ put two in scoring position just 13 pitches into the game. Urias moved ahead of Seiya Suzuki at 1-2, but then did not get the strike three call as you see below.
Urias had been a little agitated with the calls through the first two at-bats and Suzuki’s eventual double to make it 2-0 really hurt, but ultimately wouldn’t have made the difference in the game.
Nick Madrigal‘s triple and Nico Hoerner‘s single made it 3-0 in the 2nd inning before it briefly appeared that Urias had settled in. He ended the 2nd with a strikeout of Happ and started the 3rd with Ks against Suzuki and Patrick Wisdom, but the Smyly-like run ended there. Cody Bellinger hit another home run against his former team, with Trey Mancini going back-to-back for a 5-0 lead. His outing didn’t last much longer, as lineouts ended the 3rd and opened the 4th before a single by Hoerner was the last straw for Dave Roberts.
That’s 3 1/3 innings, 5 runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts on 86 pitches for Urias.
Not sure exactly what to make of it, but Urias’ velocity was down on all four pitches, ranging from 0.8 mph on the fastball to 1.9 mph on his slurve. There’s really no use in going into deeper into just how rough it was to watch.
Jake Reed‘s return to the active roster included him being the first man out of the bullpen, getting a strikeout while Wynns caught Hoerner stealing to end the inning. It pretty much imploded for Reed right after that as the Cubs went walk, single, three-run home run, double, single, single before Roberts pulled him with no outs in the 5th.
Poor Andre Jackson was then sacrificed and actually got an out before Hoerner sent the second three-run homer of the inning to left for the 12-0 lead. Jackson allowed another run in the 6th and finished with two runs allowed in his 3 innings of work.
Williams became the new Hanser Alberto, pitching the 8th inning with Betts at short and Heyward making his first professional appearance at first base. Williams was the best pitcher of the day, needing six pitches to retire the side.
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It’s the same time and same place tomorrow for the Dodgers and Cubs as Dustin May and Hayden Wesneski face off at 11:20 a.m. PT in what can’t possibly be a worse game.
