Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
In other words:
Yeah, that was a bit of a wild one.
Jose De León labored through his third major league start. He lasted just three and two-thirds innings, allowing six runs (four earned) on seven hits and two walks while striking out two.
In the second inning, De León issued a leadoff walk to Brandon Drury. Mitch Haniger singled to put runners on first and third, although Yasiel Puig almost made a very nice play to rob him:
I love Puig. pic.twitter.com/dQZGTmq2bP
— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) September 18, 2016
Charlie Culberson got what should have been an easy double play ball, but he threw high to Corey Seager and everyone was safe, with the first Arizona run coming in to score. De León retired the next two batters, but a single by Jean Segura — who had one heck of a series — made it 3-0, D-backs.
The Snakes would strike again in the bottom of the fourth. Drury singled, and Haniger launched one into the left-field seats to make it 5-0. De León would get two more outs, but a Chris Owings RBI double to make it 6-0 ended his day earlier than he probably would have liked.
For a while, this looked like it would be yet another game where the Dodgers struggled heavily against a left-handed pitcher. Robbie Ray completely shut down the Dodgers lineup for the first four and two-thirds innings, striking out eight batters. Ray lost his bid for a perfect game with two outs in the top of the fifth, when Enrique Hernández hit a solo shot to left field (Kiké’s seventh dinger of the season). The Dodgers threatened with a single by Culberson and a walk to Austin Barnes, but the runners were stranded as Carlos Ruiz grounded out.
Drury responded in the bottom half of the fifth with a solo home run off of Bud Norris. The Dodgers came right back with another run off of Ray in the top of the sixth on back-to-back doubles by Howie Kendrick and Justin Turner. Ray retired Seager and Puig, but walked Rob Segedin, then gave up a single to Hernández to make it 7-3. That was it for Ray, who gave way to Randall Delgado.
Delgado only faced two batters, and he walked both of them: first, pinch hitter Joc Pederson to load the bases, then Barnes to drive in a run and make it 7-4. Edwin Escobar relieved him, coming in to face pinch hitter Adrian González. González delivered a bases-clearing double to tie the game at seven runs apiece.
That’s good butter and eggs, man.
Josh Ravin and Josh Fields each delivered scoreless innings to keep the game tied heading into the eighth. Kendrick broke that tie with a two-run double, though not before Pederson got himself ejected for arguing balls and strikes:
The D-backs retied the game in the bottom of the eighth on an Owings two-run shot off of Louis Coleman. The next three Arizona batters walked, though each walk came against a different Dodger pitcher (Coleman, Adam Liberatore, and Ross Stripling). A nice play by Kendrick at third base (his third position of the day) kept the score knotted at nine.
The Dodgers put two men on in the top of the ninth, but failed to score. Stripling remained in to pitch the bottom of the frame, and worked his way around a pair of two-out singles to send it to extra innings.
Kendrick singled with two outs in the top of the tenth, and with no one left on the bench but a not-100-percent Yasmani Grandal, Stripling wound up hitting for himself. He grounded out, then retired the heart of the Diamondbacks order in the bottom half of the inning.
The Dodgers would not score again. Stripling picked up another scoreless frame in the 11th, but could not get through the bottom of the 12th. He gave up a double to Paul Goldschmidt, who eventually came in to score on Drury’s fourth hit of the game.
The Giants lost to the Cardinals earlier, so the Dodgers’ magic number is down to 9, and their divisional lead remains at 5 games. The Dodgers now return home for their final home stand of the year, starting with a big series against the Giants. Tomorrow night, it’s Clayton Kershaw vs. Madison Bumgarner in what ought to be a really good game. First pitch is 7:10 PM Pacific.
