Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ bullpen spoiled a likely victory on Jackie Robinson Day Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, with the St. Louis Cardinals pulling ahead for the victory on their final out.
Kenley Jansen entered the game in the ninth with a 4-3 advantage after Will Smith and Joc Pederson went back-to-back with solo homers in the eighth off of Kodi Whitley. It was Pederson’s second home run of the day as he and Smith each went deep for the second consecutive game.
After getting a few days off since his last appearance, Jansen allowed a hit and a walk to put two men on with two outs in the ninth. With his closer at 21 pitches, Dave Robots decided to turn to … Caleb Ferguson to get the final out.
It went about how you would expect given the inconsistency of virtual Ferguson, with Tommy Edman connecting on his second two-run double of the night. Dexter Fowler and Brad Miller came home, charged to Jansen, before Ferguson struck out Austin Dean to finish the inning with the Dodgers trailing 5-4.
“It was our day today,” Edman told the St. Louis News. “But we’ve got to keep our nose to the grindstone.“
Giovanny Gallegos needed just nine pitches to put the Dodgers (10-8) down and lock up the victory for St. Louis (8-9).
David Price started on Jackie Robinson Day for the Dodgers, but only threw 67 pitches in five innings. Three runs scored off Price in the second, but were all unearned as Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Justin Turner and Gavin Lux all committed errors for Los Angeles.
Price’s ERA actually lowered to 1.88 as he allowed four hits and one walk around a pair of strikeouts. Adam Kolarek and Blake Treinen worked a clean sixth and seventh respectively, with the latter striking out two in his inning.
Trailing 3-0 since the second, the Dodgers finally broke onto the scoreboard in the sixth as Max Muncy led off against Dakota Hudson with a double. Still at second two batters later, Muncy scored as Pederson cut the lead to one with another home run against John Gant, who he had gone deep against a day earlier as well.
Finishing the day 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs, Pederson accounted for most of the Dodgers’ offense. The team finished with eight hits, five off of Hudson who allowed just one run in his 5 1/3 innings while walking four and striking out five.
Alex Wood and Carlos Martinez wrap up the series on Thursday. A little more than a week ago, Martinez only lasted 1+ innings as he gave up four runs on six hits and three walks.
