Blue Jays 6, Dodgers 3: Bats blow a key chance & Phil Bickford struggles in extras

Chad Moriyama 07/24/2023 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

The Dodgers started their homestand with a closely-fought affair against the Blue Jays that ended up going into extra innings. After the Dodgers squandered a golden chance to win in the 10th, the Blue Jays put up a crooked number in the 11th and handed the Dodgers a 6-3 defeat.

They fall to 6-4 after the All-Star break and will look to keep their streak of series wins (5) alive tomorrow.

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Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios is having a heck of a bounceback year in 2022, but the Dodgers got off to a quick start in the 1st with a Mookie Betts lead-off double, a Freddie Freeman infield single, and a Max Muncy single back up the box for a 1-0 lead.

Berrios limited the damage after that, and then did so again in the 2nd by working around a single and a walk.

After a clean 3rd, the Dodgers got back on the board behind Jason Heyward and his 10th homer of the year for a 2-0 lead.

After a scoreless 4th, to complete his outing, Berrios again wiggled out of trouble by escaping two walks in the 5th with a zero on the board, as the Dodgers were again unable to take advantage.

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On the other side was Michael Grove, who looked about as good as he ever has early on. He struck out all three batters in the 1st to work around a two-out double, then struck out two in the 2nd while surrendering just an infield single. He then got a six-pitch frame in the 3rd as the Blue Jays continued their aggression, and a single in the 4th was erased by a pickoff to end the inning.

Unfortunately, the 5th is where things changed up, as he gave up three singles in a row to cut the lead to 2-1. However, he got a nice double play to put him on the verge of escaping. He even got Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to 1-2, but couldn’t put him away and eventually gave up the game-tying single and was removed.

Still an impressive outing for Grove and solidifies him as a potential middle reliever: 4.2 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 68 Pitches.

He was also accused of cheating by Blue Jays fans despite … not a lot of evidence aside from a rosin wipe spot.

Anyway, Caleb Ferguson came in to get out of the 5th, and he did that with a strikeout. However, in the 6th a walk and a single put him in trouble. Thankfully, he managed a strikeout, then induced a double play to pull off the tight-rope act and keep things 2-2.

Yency Almonte was next in the 7th, and he turned in a nice and painless 1-2-3 frame to continue his roll. Brusdar Graterol followed in the 8th and looked great, striking out the first two batters he faced, but Matt Chapman drilled the first pitch he saw from him for a homer to break the tie and put the Blue Jays up 3-2.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were not doing well against the Jays pen. They made seven straight outs against them to get from the 6th to the 8th, but Muncy emphatically ended that with his 25th homer of the year to tie things up at 3-3. The bat fling was … something of beauty.

The Dodgers also put together a rally with two outs later in the 8th, as Jason Heyward doubled, Chris Taylor walked, both advanced on a wild pitch, and James Outman walked to load things up. In a questionable move, Dave Roberts went with Miguel Rojas to pinch-hit for Yonny Hernandez over Jonny Deluca and potentially J.D. Martinez as well, and while he battled and put a good swing on the ball, he flew out to right to end that threat.

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Seeking to get the game into walk-off territory, Evan Phillips started the 9th for the Dodgers. He gave up a single to start, but got a groundout that advanced the runner, a fly out, and a ground out to keep the score at 3-3.

It was the top of the order for the Dodgers against Jay Jackson, but they went down quietly in 1-2-3 fashion.

Extra baseball!

Starting things off in the 10th was Ryan Brasier, who gave up a deep fly ball to advance the Manfred Runner, but a grounder to third kept the runner at third and another grounder got him out of the inning without allowing a run.

That gave the Dodgers a prime shot to win it in their half, but a strikeout, intentional walk, fly out to the track in left, and a groundout left them with no runs either.

Phil Bickford was in there for the Dodgers in the 11th, which started with a CT3 throwing error and was followed by a single to load the bases. Bickford then gave up a lined ball to right to Varsho, which got down and past Heyward in right for a double and a pair of runs to make it 5-3.

Back-to-back walks followed and forced in another run to make it 6-3, but he did get out of it with just that allowed when it could’ve been a laugher.

Anyway, the Dodgers then went down in order to close things out in the 11th.

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It’s happening.

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NL WESTRECORD
Dodgers57-42
Diamondbacks54-47 (4 GB)
Giants54-47 (4 GB)

*Either still playing or will play later.

The two teams will do it again tomorrow at the same late time (thank god!) of 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET, and it’ll be Julio Urias (5.02 ERA/4.03 xERA/5.05 DRA) looking to bounce back from arguably the worst start of his career against Chris Bassitt (3.92/4.41/4.46).

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