Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Wrapping up a sweep of the truly abhorrent Detroit Tigers (24-53), the Los Angeles Dodgers (45-33) pulled ahead in the first and cruised to a 3-2 sweep thanks to Clayton Kershaw.
Striking out 10 across his 8 innings of work, Kershaw allowed just 7 hits and 1 walk on Sunday. With his ERA now at 3.10, Kershaw left the game leading 3-0 before the bullpen tried to spoil it late.
It was Blake Treinen this time, as he hit two of the five batters he faced while walking another. An RBI groundout by Anthony Alford brought in the Tigers’ first run against Treinen before Dave Robots turned to star reliever Joe Kelly to close out the victory. A single by Niko Goodrum brought in the second run of the inning, but Kelly struck out Travis Demeritte to end the game.
“We put together a nice win,” Kershaw said.
Yeah, I guess so. The offense didn’t really do much against Daniel Norris, who allowed 6 hits and 3 walks in his 6 innings of work. All three of the Dodgers runs came off of home runs against Norris. Code Bellinger connected on a two-out solo dong in the first inning, his 14th of the season, the lone run of the day until the fifth inning.
With Gavin Lux on base and two down, Mookie Botts connected on a two-run shot to put the Dodgers up 3-0 after 5. Botts finished the game 3-for-4 with his 12th homer of the year and Bellinger went 2-for-3 with a walk. That was pretty much the extent of the offense for the Dodgers for the day. Buck Farmer and Ethan DeCaster each threw a scoreless inning for the Tigers, though Farmer did allow a double to Bellinger.
The Dodgers begin a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, a game I expected to be at in reality if things hadn’t gone as badly as they possibly could.
