Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks, 13-7, to start the second half of the season off on the right foot and extend their winning streak to four games. The offense was the star today, and it was led by an unlikely candidate in Chris Taylor, who was a single away from hitting for the cycle.
It was sensual!
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As mentioned, the offense is what got the job done today for 13 runs, totalling 18 hits and four walks, including five hits going for extra bases.
Justin Turner gave a hint of what was to come in the first inning with a long homer to center that continued his hot run for a 1-0 lead.
In the third, the Dodgers got a bit fortunate, capitalizing on two errors by D-Backs third baseman Jake Lamb, as well as a double by Corey Seager to score a run and make it 2-0.
After the D-Backs came back with three of their own, the Dodgers put up a crooked number in the fourth. Back-to-back singles by Scott Van Slyke and Yasmani Grandal led the inning off, and then Taylor crushed a ball to center for a triple to score both SVS and Grandal.
Later, with one down, Howie Kendrick singled to score Taylor from third, and back-to-back walks to Seager and Turner loaded the bases. Adrian Gonzalez then struck out to put Patrick Corbin on the brink of escaping major damage, but Yasiel Puig came through by hammering a 3-1 fastball to center to drive in Kendrick and Seager to make the score 7-3.
In the fifth, the Dodgers scored again, this time on a Bud Norris single to drive in Taylor and make the score 8-3. However, after the D-Backs got a run of their own, it was the sixth inning that blew the game open. Turner was hit by a pitch and had a minor stare down incident, and A-Gon and Puig followed with singles to left to load the bases. SVS and Grandal then struck out, and it seemed like a typical Dodgers type of inning, but Taylor played the hero and crushed a 2-0 fastball for a grand slam and a 12-4 lead.
In the ninth, for a little bit of insurance after a bit of a pen meltdown, Puig came up with another hit to drive in Kendrick from second and boost the lead to 13-7.
As for the other side of the ball, eh, it could’ve been worse. Norris only went five innings on 98 pitches, which continued the trend of starters having trouble getting deep into games. He gave up four runs on eight hits, but none of them were homers and he walked none while striking out five, so his main problem was sequencing more than anything else. Not a great outing, but not a sign he’s about to turn back into a pumpkin or anything.
Norris maybe got some assistance as well.
Bud Norris' arm. You be the judge. pic.twitter.com/u9ladyk73u
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) July 16, 2016
Pedro Baez entered in relief to get a scoreless sixth inning, but Casey Fien ran into a bunch of trouble in the seventh. Fien recorded only one out and gave up three hits, including two homers for three runs.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/754176751882805248
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/754176995613736960
J.P. Howell entered in relief to get the last two batters of the inning and escape further trouble. The game was then turned over to Chris Hatcher, who is basically now the team’s long reliever, and he managed to get two innings of scoreless ball to notch the victory.
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With the win, the Dodgers move to 52-40 on the year and get back to .500 on the road at 22-22. In the NL West, the Dodgers trim the lead of the Giants to 5.5 games after they fell to the Padres tonight. Both the Mets and Marlins won tonight, so the race for both home-field advantage in the NL Wild Card race and the race to just make the game itself is still 2.5 games in favor of the Dodgers.
Tomorrow the Dodgers get the Diamondbacks again as they go for the series win at 2:10 PM HST/5:10 PM PST/8:10 PM EST with Brandon McCarthy (2.70 ERA/2.88 FIP/3.03 SIERA) on the mound against Archie Bradley (4.64/4.60/4.28 SIERA).
