Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Even after having their win streak ended, the Dodgers entered tonight still playing well and they got off to another great start to a series against the Rockies with a 5-1 victory.
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The star of the show was undoubtedly Walker Buehler, who finally looked like he found his groove. After scuffling a bit early on (as he tends to do), Buehler went six innings tonight and struck out 11. Most importantly, he walked none and gave up just a run on four hits.
But even that doesn’t quite describe his dominance, as until the 6th he had given up just one single before he gave up three consecutive singles to right (a bit unlucky) to score the one run against him.
Offensively, the Dodgers got on the board first in the 1st behind a Joc Pederson double, Justin Turner single, and Cody Bellinger double to make it 1-0. Nothing else came of the rally, however.
In the 4th, they extended their lead behind an AJ Pollock double and a Matt Beaty single that really starred Dino Ebel making a great send.
Chris Taylor then singled to put two on again, and later in the frame with two outs, Corey Seager yanked a double down the line to make it 4-0.
After the Rockies got their aforementioned run, the Dodgers got it back in the 6th. Taylor doubled to start, got to third on a wild pitch, and then scored on an Austin Barnes sac fly to make it a four-run lead again at 5-1.
Adam Kolarek was tasked with the 7th for the Dodgers in relief of Buehler, cruising through a 1-2-3 frame that included a strikeout. Caleb Ferguson followed in the 8th and was even better, getting a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. Kenley Jansen apparently needed work, so he got the 9th with a four-run lead, getting a 1-2-3 inning of his own to close it.
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Mookie Betts got the day off and he planned on using it.
Orel Hershiser … I dunno.
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The Dodgers improve to 20-8 with the win, a 116-win pace. The Padres won so the NL West lead remains at 4 games.
The two teams will do it again tomorrow at 3:10 HST/6:10 PST/9:10 EST, with Dustin May facing Kyle Freeland.
