Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Well, it’s second half baseball from today on, and the Dodgers got their road trip off on the right foot, shutting out the Mets in a 6-0 win.
That makes it five in a row for the Dodgers as they stayed red-hot coming out of the break.
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Due to the game being on Apple TV+ and me not wanting to pay for it out of spite at this point more than anything else, I didn’t actually watch things unfold.
That said, Justin Verlander was always teetering on the edge of disaster tonight. After he escaped with walking two in the 1st, he had another walk erased in the 2nd before seemingly settling in with a clean 3rd and 4th.
However, the 5th was an absolute disaster, as with one out he walked the entire bottom of the order in Jason Heyward, James Outman, and Miguel Rojas to load the bases, and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman took advantage with a single and double, respectively. That made it 3-0 in a hurry and Verlander was lucky to escape only down that much.
Mookie and Freddie are the duo. pic.twitter.com/NVw5Qkp9PF
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 15, 2023
That inning knocked Verlander out, but the scoring continued in the 6th with the bottom of the order again. A J.D. Martinez walk was followed by a pair of outs, but an Outman single was followed by a Rojas single to make it 4-0.
Miguel Rojas' single finally got put up. pic.twitter.com/dhLTcMItgr
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 15, 2023
After taking a rest in the 7th, and offense got right back to things in the 8th behind Martinez’s 23rd ding dong of the year to make it 5-0.
Just Dongs pic.twitter.com/LbErklOdmo
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 15, 2023
The offense tacked on one more in the 9th, as Outman led off with a double, Mookie singled with one out to corner the runners, and Freeman walked to load the bases. Will Smith avoided the double play on a grounder to make it 6-0, but despite reloading the bases on a Max Muncy walk, the offense for the game ended there.
Not that it mattered much.
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As all this was going on, Julio Urias got his second half started right after what can only be described as a disaster of a first half in his contract year.
Things didn’t seem to start off ideally, as a called lead-off homer was overturned to a double on review, and after back-to-back strikeouts Urias issued a walk before escaping the 1st. Yet after that trouble, he didn’t allow another baserunner past first, though there were only two to begin with via a hit by pitch and catcher’s interference.
Urias largely cruised in what looked like a 2022 performance: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, 85 Pitches.
The Dodgers desperately need that from him as much as possible now.
For the pen, it was Yency Almonte in the 7th and he continued his run of success, cruising through an 11-pitch inning. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in a month now, and hopefully it’s something. For the 8th, it was Caleb Ferguson‘s turn to have a 1-2-3 frame, which he punctuated with a three-pitch strikeout.
No save situation, so it was Ryan Brasier in the 9th, who has been a sneaky good pick-up for this beleaguered pen. He continued that run by carving through a 10-pitch final frame to secure the win and the shutout.
Nice start to the second half.
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| NL WEST | RECORD |
|---|---|
| Dodgers | 52-38 |
| Diamondbacks | 52-40 (1 GB) |
| Giants | 50-41 (2.5 GB) |
*Either still playing or will play later.
The teams will do it again tomorrow on a channel everybody gets (FOX) at 1:15 PM HT/4:15 PM PT/7:15 PM ET with Tony Gonsolin facing Kodai Senga.
