Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers have a win … winni … winning streak?! Yes, they’ve finally strung together a successful run of three straight wins thanks to a 8-2 victory over the Reds tonight, with the return to winning ways coming immediately after going through a rough 1-6 stretch.
The win puts them over .500 (again) at 24-23, so hopefully maybe they can stay there permanently for once. The victory also moves them to exactly .500 at home at 12-12.
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Mike Bolsinger was a surprising starter tonight after Ross Stripling was burned in the 17-inning win against the Padres on Sunday. Despite the emergency duty, Bolsinger did an admirable job, giving the Dodgers 5 2/3 quality innings over 85 pitches. He ended up only surrendering three hits and a walk while striking out six, and gave up his only runs on a two-run shot by Adam Duvall in the fourth inning.
Bolsinger was removed in the sixth so Luis Avilan could face a lefty, and Avilan escaped trouble by getting his man. Joe Blanton, Pedro Baez, and Adam Liberatore followed to get the last three innings, which they did by striking out three and not allowing a single baserunner.
The bullpen sans Kenley Jansen is having one of those runs again, which is what generally average bullpens do. Have successful streaks like the Dodgers pen have had all year and then implode like three games in a row.
On the other side of the coin, the Dodgers offense actually had a quality day at the office against the worst pitching staff in the majors, which was nice change from yesterday’s nail-biter. The Dodgers got eight runs on 11 hits and six walks, only striking out six times while running through five different Reds pitchers.
Justin Turner got the good guys off to a quick start in the first inning, singling in Chase Utley for an early run. Then the fourth, the Dodgers scored two runs behind Joc Pederson, who first drove in a run with a double and then scored on a throwing error after stealing third base. In the sixth inning it was Yasiel Puig‘s turn, as he pimped a single off the wall to drive in Trayce Thompson and then scored from second on a Howie Kendrick grounder to first base that Joey Votto booted.
The Dodgers then added three insurance runs in the eighth inning behind a bases-loaded single by Turner to score two runs and an A-Gon single to score another before the pain ended for the Reds pen.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/735334859816771584
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The Dodgers play the Reds again tomorrow in the series finale, and they go for the sweep at 7:10 PST/10:10 EST. The pitching matchup is best chance for the Reds, with Scott Kazmir going against Dan Straily.
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-Votto does not like paper airplanes.
A-Gon egging on the crowd gave me the header picture at least.
Gonzo is coming prepared for Joey Votto tomorrow pic.twitter.com/fb9CmlM3e1
— TheConman (@akaTheConman) May 25, 2016
-Pedro Baez: professional athlete.
-Puig bullied by teammates in the dugout!
Or actually by Dave Roberts (understandably).
Dave Roberts pulled Yasiel Puig because he did not run out his single off the wall.
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) May 25, 2016
-Joc is PROBLEMATIC!
Joc Pederson to @alannarizzo on field, on narrowly missing Adam Duvall's home run in the 4th inning: "I guess white men can't jump."
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) May 25, 2016
