Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Mike Leake pretty nearly shut down the Dodgers when he faced them last week, going eight innings and allowing just one run on four hits. Chase Utley quickly matched that run total with a solo shot in the third inning:
That was Chase’s third home run in five games, after he’d gone 37 games into the season without one.
Yasiel Puig followed Utley’s home run with a base hit. He advanced to second on a Rich Hill sac bunt, and scored on a Corey Seager two-out single.
The Dodgers tacked on another run the following inning, as Cody Bellinger launched his team-leading 11th dinger of the year:
Hill, who was toying around with some mechanical changes, was perfect through his first three innings pitched. He didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning, although he ran into trouble and gave up a run in the fourth. He walked Tommy Pham with one out, and proceeded to hit Matt Carpenter with a pitch. A double steal and a Jedd Gyorko sac fly got St. Louis on the board.
Hill allowed a pair of singles to start the fifth, ending his no-hit bid. A double play helped distill the threat, but he then walked walked Leake. Hill managed to get out of the situation by getting Dexter Fowler to pop out. At this point, Hill was only at 86 pitches, but after those two unsteady innings, his day came to an end, and the bullpen took over. Pedro Báez worked around a base hit to pitch a scoreless sixth inning.
The Dodgers added a bit of insurance in the top of the seventh. Chris Taylor walked, advanced to third on an Utley base hit, and, impressively, scored on a shallow Puig sac fly to left field.
Sergio Romo took the mound for the bottom of the seventh, and gave up a one-out double to Paul DeJong. Seager then botched a grounder, deflecting it into left field. Bellinger got ahold of it, and gunned down DeJong trying to score from second (on, admittedly, a very questionable send):
https://twitter.com/MLB/status/869292040886112256
The Dodgers padded their lead in the eighth inning as Logan Forsythe launched the first home run of his Dodger career:
Logan Forsythe with his first home run as a member of the #Dodgers! (via @MLB) pic.twitter.com/VuxMASk2Ha
— Chavez Ravine Fiends (@RavineFiends) May 29, 2017
The Dodgers have hit 11 home runs in their past five games.
Chris Hatcher pitched a scoreless eighth inning, and Brandon Morrow, added to the roster today as Alex Wood hit the disabled list, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning. The Dodger bullpen’s scoreless streak has now reached 22 innings.
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The Dodgers, who have won five in a row, are now 32-20, while the Cardinals are now exactly .500, at 24-24. Tomorrow, Kenta Maeda (5.08 ERA, 4.19 FIP, 1.241 WHIP) will once again face Michael Wacha (3.66 ERA, 3.49 FIP, 1.243 WHIP). First pitch is 4:05 PM Pacific.
