Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
On this NLDS recap episode of Dugout Blues, Jared and I recap Saturday night’s 8-5 Dodger victory over the Diamondbacks. As the score might indicate, there was a lot to talk about.
The Dodgers got down 2-0 three batters into the game when Paul Goldschmidt launched one into orbit on a middle-middle 88 MPH fastball from Rich Hill. But Hill settled down a bit after that and made it through four innings — more normal this postseason than in postseasons past.
The Dodger offense scored eight runs without the benefit of a home run — something some folks had been concerned about (for some reason) heading into October. It was a balanced attack and the guys at the bottom of the lineup (Logan Forsythe, Austin Barnes) picked up the guys at the top of the lineup (Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger). That’s when you know things are going well. Oh, and Yasiel Puig had himself another strong performance. I am excite.
Hill’s shortish outing meant Dave Roberts had to go to his bullpen early. The management of said bullpen was a bit questionable, as Tony Cingrani pitched to one batter in the fifth inning. He was relieved by Kenta Maeda, who would retire three batters on nine pitches before being removed, for some reason. The reason being “he’s here to get righties out,” and it doesn’t exactly pass the smell test for me, but whatever. Tony Watson wasn’t great before turning things over to Brandon Morrow. The first pitch to Brandon Drury was hit 400-plus feet into the left field pavilion, because of course it was. It was the first dinger he had allowed all season. Josh Fields struck out J.D. Martinez in the eighth on three pitches but then allowed a booming double off the right-center field wall to Daniel Descalso. Baseball. Kenley Jansen got the final five outs of the game with little trouble.
The Dodgers offense showed up for a second straight night, this time against Robbie Ray and the D’backs bullpen. Scoring 9 and 8 runs a game is a good thing, IMO. It helps to make up for the pitching scuffling just a little bit.
Game 3 should be the best pitching matchup, as Yu Darvish is taking on Zack Greinke. It’ll be interesting to see how Darvish fares. If he can give the Dodgers five quality innings, they should be in good shape.
We answer the few questions we received. Thank you for them.
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