Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After yesterday’s annoying extra-inning loss, the Dodgers rebounded to tie the series against the Diamondbacks by a 4-0 score behind a nice rebound start from Kenta Maeda and the offense totaling more than two hits.
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Maeda came into today’s start struggling. He lasted less than five innings in his previous three starts, giving up a total of 14 runs in his just 11 innings. Tonight he bounced back in a big way, going six shutout innings on 83 pitches, striking out five batters and walking none while surrendering just three singles.
The bats had some bouncing back to do as well. Things got started early in the 2nd after Max Muncy smashed his 28th ding dong of the year off Alex Young for a 1-0 lead.
They tacked on to that in the 3rd with as many hits as they had last night. Russell Martin started things with a double, and got quite the reaction from Alex Verdugo after face planting a bit.
After two outs, Justin Turner was intentionally walked. However, future NL MVP winner Kristopher Negron did his thing with a single to center to make it 2-0.
The Dodgers doubled their lead again in the 4th. Muncy started things with a walk, advanced to second on a ground out and then got to third on a wild pitch. Corey Seager then got a walk of his own, and Martin followed with another hit, this time a single to drive in Muncy.
With runners on the corners, Maeda successfully executed a safety squeeze to contribute to his own cause as Seager beat the flip home to make it 4-0.
Back to the shutout, Caleb Ferguson took over in the 8th, getting two outs and walking a batter. Joe Kelly was summoned to close things out and he did exactly that.
After Kenley Jansen blew the save last night, they got him right back out there tonight with a four-run lead. Jansen started by getting a softly-hit ground out, but then surrendered a clean single on a slider. He rebounded to get the win without much other fuss, getting two routine fly outs to end it.
The Dodgers improve to 78-41 on the season with the victory, which maintains their 106-win pace. They now lead the NL West by 18 games over the Diamondbacks, the NL by 9 games over the Braves, and are tied with the Astros in the MLB.
They go for the series win in the rubber match at 10:10 AM HST/1:10 PM PST/4:10 PM EST with Hyun-Jin Ryu facing Mike Leake.
