Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers had their seven-game winning streak ended by the Diamondbacks this afternoon in a 3-2 loss.
Oh well.
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The Dodgers are sending Will Smith to AAA after the game, but he made sure to make an impression as he left. After Alex Verdugo walked to start the 3rd, Smith turned on a ball and smashed his second career homer to make it 2-0.
Meanwhile, Kenta Maeda was perfect through three, but had that rudely interrupted by a single to start the 4th. He bounced back by retiring the next two batters, but allowed a double to plate a run and cut the lead to 2-1.
That was the only run he gave up in his five innings, as he limited the D-backs to two hits and a walk, striking out seven. Maeda threw only 70 pitches and presumably was removed for matchup reasons.
It worked out alright since Julio Urias entered in relief and got six consecutive outs on 29 pitches, looking dominant as he struck out three.
That was unfortunately not the case for Pedro Baez, though I don’t think he was necessarily at fault. With one out, he hit professional getting-hit-by-the-pitch-guy Tim Locastro, who stole second and advanced to third on a comebacker. With two outs, Jarrod Dyson grounded a ball down the first-base line, which Muncy looked like he was at least gonna knock down if it didn’t take a bizarre bounce over him to plate the tying run before Baez got out of the inning.
Ross Stripling then took over in the 9th as he looked to preserve the tie and did so for two innings. While he was forced to work around trouble in the 10th due to two walks, he notched a strikeout as a part of getting out of a jam.
The 11th was given to Scott Alexander, who really belongs in AAA at this point, and he ended the game predictably by giving up a lead-off triple and then a single on the next pitch.
Of course, the actual problem today was the offense, who didn’t end up doing much of anything.
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The Dodgers fall to 43-20 on the year and are now 10 games ahead of the Rockies in the NL West.
After an off day tomorrow, they open a series at San Francisco against the rival Giants at 4:15 PM HST/7:15 PM PST/10:15 PM EST. Clayton Kershaw will start for the Dodgers against … nobody knows.
