Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After dropping the first game of the short Freeway Series, the Dodgers were at risk of being swept not only in this series but also the season series. That is exactly what happened after the offense went ice cold again — granted, with help from the umpires — in a 3-2 loss to the Angels.
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Kole Calhoun is the latest generally league-average player to absolutely own the Dodgers for no apparent reason. In the 1st, the scoring started off Ross Stripling with a two-out double to put the Angels up. Calhoun came up again in the 4th and almost predictably at this point hit a solo shot to right that doubled the lead to 2-0.
Other than that, Stripling pitched well. He went five innings on just 62 pitches, surrendering the two runs on three hits and no walks while striking out two. He did unfortunately leave with neck stiffness.
Seems like he’ll be alright.
Meanwhile, the offense generated a whole lot of nothing through the first few frames, but the tone of things was set in the first plate appearance of the game from Joc Pederson, at least in terms of how the umpire was calling things.
Terrible.
Eventually Justin Turner changed the offensive drought in the 4th with his 14th dong of the year to cut the lead in half at 2-1.
JT Chargois took over in the 6th and ran into trouble that wasn’t much of his own doing. After a lead-off single, the runner stole second and advanced to third on a horrible throw from Austin Barnes. That immediately led to a run from a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1. After two outs were recorded, Casey Sadler entered to try his luck against Calhoun and he managed a strikeout, which makes him the relief ace now. Sadler also got a scoreless 7th, giving up just a single.
Rewinding a bit, the Dodgers managed to cut the lead down to one in the 6th. A one-out Cody Bellinger walk eventually led to a two-out Corey Seager single that ended up driving in a run to make it 3-2.
After two walks in the 7th, the Dodgers had another rare scoring chance on the night, but any thoughts of a rally were killed by a Max Muncy double play.
Pedro Baez then struggled a bit in the 8th, walking two batters, but he did get out of it with a strikeout and a double play to keep the Dodgers chances around.
Then, uh, this happened.
There's knowing the zone and having to adapt and … this shit. pic.twitter.com/dWZzLVIm3d
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 25, 2019
It was like … bad, bad.
Kenley Jansen then had a bit of a shaky 9th, giving up a double and a walk but also getting two strikeouts and a scoreless inning. To be fair, the double was to Calhoun.
The Dodgers couldn’t rally in the 9th and were limited to five hits and five walks on the night.
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Enrique Hernandez exited the game after hurting his hand taking an awkward swing.
Just as he was getting hot, of course.
Gavin Lux time?
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The loss drops the Dodgers to 67-37 on the year, which drops the win pace down to 104.
Following a brief 3-2 homestand, the Dodgers have the day off tomorrow as they travel to the East Coast to start a road trip against the Nationals on Friday at 1:05 PM HST/4:05 PM PST/7:05 PM EST. Hyun-Jin Ryu will square off against Anibal Sanchez, who is not only still in the majors but apparently decently effective.
