Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After the Dodgers absolutely drubbed the Diamondbacks by a score of 12-5 (and it wasn’t that close) on Opening Day, that elation quickly gave way to the reality of baseball in the second game of the season, as we were greeted with a 13-inning marathon for a sequel.
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The Dodgers got the scoring started in the 2nd thanks to a majestic dong from former Diamondbacks player AJ Pollock to put the Dodgers up 1-0.
Things continued rolling in the very next inning. Walks from Russell Martin, Enrique Hernandez, and David Freese off D-backs starter Robbie Ray loaded the bases, but there were also two outs due to Ross Stripling‘s sacrifice bunt and a Justin Turner strikeout. Thankfully, Pollock was still around, and he shot a ball against the shift for a single to plate two and make it 3-0.
Unfortunately, they returned to being the Dodgers you’re used to after that. They proceeded to strand runners in scoring position in 8 of the remaining 11 innings, managing to push just one more run across the plate.
But on the other side of the ball, things were actually going rather well on the mound. Stripling gave the team 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing just four baserunners and striking out five batters.
Scott Alexander followed in relief and got two batters without any fuss. However, things got messy in the 7th even though they shouldn’t have. Pedro Baez came in and should’ve had a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts, but on the second strikeout, Martin whiffed on a fastball up in the zone and allowed the runner to reach. That was followed by a walk, and with Baez at 22 pitches they turned to their new setup man Joe Kelly.
Kelly immediately surrendered a game-tying three-run dong to Christian Walker while facing his first batter as a Dodger.
After Kelly got out of the 7th, the Dodgers struck back immediately thanks to a two-out Pollock double and then a Corey Seager single to make it 4-3.
Of course, even this requires a note, as there were two outs in that situation only because JT ran into an out while trying to read a ball in the dirt. Sigh.
That loomed large because Kelly returned for the 8th looking for redemption and instead found a big bowl of shit. After getting an out to start the frame, he allowed a single, a double, and then intentionally walked the bases loaded. That almost paid off when Ketel Marte grounded sharply to short, but he runs well and they couldn’t turn the double play, so the tying run scored and it was 4-4.
While he got out of it after that, obviously the damage was done through him blowing the game not once but twice.
Then it was the offense that powered the fail train, as they couldn’t push anything across the plate despite chance after chance. In retrospect, Enrique probably should’ve just taken a chance on this super wild pitch.
Meanwhile, Kenley Jansen, Caleb Ferguson, and Dylan Floro all produced scoreless frames, with the latter notching two.
Eventually the pen relented, as Yimi Garcia entered and got two outs, but then walked two batters and gave up a bloop double down the line in right to score the winning run at 5-4. He was definitely getting squeezed (he ended up walking three) and was unlucky to give up the hit, but at this point I don’t care.
The offense was as lifeless in their last chance as they had been since the end of the 3rd frame, going down in order to seal it.
And with that, the longest home game in Dodgers regular-season history was complete.
Time for sleep.
