Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After dropping their last three series and losing six of their last eight games, the Dodgers got a day off and returned home. Rested up, they were at least able to take the first game of this series from the White Sox, jumping out to an early lead and cruising comfortable from there in a 5-1 victory.
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The bats got the homestand off on the right foot, jumping on the struggling Lance Lynn early. After he issued a walk to Freddie Freeman in the 1st, Will Smith followed with his 10th homer of the year to put the Dodgers up 2-0.
Will Smith starts the scoring with a two-run shot. pic.twitter.com/PlQrBi9mFz
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 14, 2023
Jason Heyward followed by dribbling a single up the middle, and later David Peralta took advantage by smashing his fourth homer of the year for a 4-0 lead.
David Peralta stays hot, delivers the second two-run homer of the inning. pic.twitter.com/qwmWEO341f
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 14, 2023
Staked to that early lead was Tony Gonsolin coming off extra rest, and he made that move pay off by tossing six shutout frames. He was essentially never in real danger, as the White Sox had just two at-bats with runners in scoring position during his outing. Those happened in the 1st after a two-out walk and steal, and the 4th after a one-out single and then a two-out wild pitch and hit by pitch.
While he had just one clean inning, that was mainly because he didn’t get help from his defense. Mookie Betts made an error in the 2nd, and his 6th was tarnished by an “infield single” after confusion from Miguel Vargas over who of Gonsolin and Freeman would cover the bag.
The Dodgers are gonna need Gonsolin to consistently give them innings while preventing runs, and he did that tonight: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 90 Pitches
Offensively, there weren’t any updates because Lynn settled in quite nicely. He didn’t allow a run in the subsequent four inning after the 1st, giving up just a pair of singles during that time. Thankfully, the 6th got messy in a hurry as Jason Heyward led off with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch, and J.D. Martinez walked. That was the end of Lynn’s night.
Lefty Garrett Crochet came out of the pen, so Miguel Rojas hit for Peralta, and he grounded a potential double play ball to Yoan Moncada at third, who promptly booted it to load the bases. Vargas took advantage with a deep sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 5-0, but James Outman‘s struggles continued with a strikeout, and the runners were left stranded when Chris Taylor popped foul to first.
Behind a lead-off double from Mookie, the Dodgers tried to add insurance in the 7th against Crochet, but back-to-back strikeouts followed, and Jonny Deluca‘s Dodger Stadium debut single was hit too hard as Mookie was out by a lot at home.
Jonny DeLuca hits a single too hard, Mookie does Mays Hayes at home. pic.twitter.com/WmH1ZMCwQb
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 14, 2023
Tanner Banks closed out the Dodgers for the White Sox in the 8th, though limiting the damage thankfully didn’t matter.
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In relief of Gonsolin was struggling Caleb Ferguson in the 7th, who carved the White Sox for a pair of strikeouts and a pop out on just 12 pitches. The 8th belonged to Evan Phillips, who followed with a 1-2-3 frame of his own.
Trying to close the game out was Tayler Scott, but he immediately gave up a double, then fielded a comebacker but wasn’t able to get the runner going to third. All of a sudden he had the runners cornered with nobody out, but he did rebound to get the strikeout.
With Brusdar Graterol already up in the pen just in case, he entered the game to get the final two outs, giving up a sacrifice fly to make it 5-1 before getting a groundout to end it.
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| NL WEST | RECORD |
|---|---|
| Diamondbacks | 41-26 |
| Dodgers | 38-29 (3 GB) |
| Giants | 35-32 (6 GB) |
*Either still playing or will play later.
The two teams will do it again 10 minutes earlier tomorrow on ESPN at 4:00 PM HT/7:00 PM PT/10:00 PM ET. Clayton Kershaw (2.95 ERA/3.41 xERA/3.60 DRA) will look to build on his last start and will face off against Mike Clevinger (4.19/4.76/6.45).
