Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The three-game Dodgers win streak was snapped today after the offense was mostly stifled and the Phillies took advantage of a short Clayton Kershaw start and a terrible injury to Brusdar Graterol in a 6-2 loss.
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After having a worrying start last time out, Kershaw looked much better today in a brutal matchup against the lefty-mashing Phillies. After not striking out anybody before, he struck out five today in 4.2 innings, giving up a run on five hits in 81 pitches.
His day ended in the 5th when he was driven from the game by a Kyle Schwarber single to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead.
Joe Kelly entered to get the final out of the 5th, and then it was Graterol’s return in the 6th. After he threw eight pitches, getting an out and giving up a single, he then grabbed his hammy and exited the game with injury.
I'm sad, but seeing him getting emotional made it worse. Fucking sucks. pic.twitter.com/K99CL3fpKH
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) August 7, 2024
It didn’t look like a minor issue either … which is just terrible.
Brent Honeywell Jr. entered in his place and … didn’t have it early, which to be fair is difficult circumstance to enter to. He issued a walk that was charged to Graterol, gave up a single to score a run, issued another walk to load the bases, and gave up another single for two more runs before he got out of the frame. 4-0 Phillies.
Honeywell the continued in the 7th and 8th, getting some help from Andy Pages to keep the zeroes on the board.
Andy Pages shows off the hose. pic.twitter.com/Qqfl4RtbgO
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) August 7, 2024
Meanwhile, Cristopher Sanchez was cruising through the game. He was forced to work around a few baserunners and an error, but there was mostly nothing doing through five.
In the 6th, the Dodgers finally got on the board with a Teoscar Hernandez lead-off double and back-to-back groundouts by Freddie Freeman and Will Smith to make it 4-1.
After the first two batters reached in the 7th, Sanchez was done, and the Dodgers blew that chance. However, Teoscar smacked his 25th dinger of the year in the 8th to make it 4-2.
¡Teoscar al callejón central! pic.twitter.com/sAH7CGH6gP
— Los Dodgers (@LosDodgers) August 7, 2024
Amazingly, Honeywell continued into the 9th and basically made a whole-ass start, giving up a pair of homers to push the Phillies lead to 6-2.
Oh there's no doubt about that. I just mean for Honeywell, who has been great in his multi-inning role and now has to throw like as many pitches as River Ryan is allowed in a game on zero notice. https://t.co/5vmVsZY3qe
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) August 7, 2024
The Phillies then closed the Dodgers out in the 9th.
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| NL WEST | RECORD |
|---|---|
| Dodgers | 66-48 |
| Padres | 62-52 (4 GB) |
The series finale will be tomorrow at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET, yet again on MLB Network. It’ll be Gavin Stone looking to end his run of mediocrity against Tyler Phillips.
