Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers had one winning streak ended and decided to start another, taking the first three games against the Diamondbacks after winning tonight by a 4-2 score. The pitching staff was solid again, but mainly it was the D-backs’ defensive comedies that led to the comeback. Take it.
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Clayton Kershaw took the mound for the Dodgers and aside from hitting Tim Locastro with a pitch, because of course, he got a perfect trio of frames.
That changed quickly in the 4th, as he issued a one-out walk to Josh Rojas, which was immediately followed by Eduardo Escobar drilling a ball to center for a two-run shot.
🗣️ Congratulations!
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) May 20, 2021
10th dinger of the season for @escobardelapica. pic.twitter.com/o5kVdgCfbB
On the other side, Matt Peacock made his second start of his career and started out by retiring the first 10 Dodgers he faced. But he also ran into trouble in the 4th, as Max Muncy ripped a one-out double into the right-field corner and Yoshi Tsutsugo followed by poking a single the other way against the shift for his first hit and first RBI as a Dodger. 2-1.
In the 5th, Kershaw got into immediate trouble again by allowing a double that was moved to third on a ground out, and disaster seemed to strike when a safety squeeze was thrown away by Kershaw. But upon further review, Peacock was well inside the baseline and was ruled out, which was followed by Kershaw wriggling out of trouble.
After another clean inning in the 6th, Kershaw’s night was done as the Dodgers were trailing and needed a bat: 6 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 8 K, 83 Pitches.
Peacock continued in the 6th, giving up a pinch-hit single to Luke Raley to start and then another single with one out to Muncy to corner the runners. That led to Taylor Clarke entering, and after the D-backs surrendered a stolen base to Muncy to avoid getting baited into a rundown play, he escaped trouble with a shallow fly and a ground out to end the threat.
Joe Kelly entered in relief of Kershaw, getting a dominating 7th inning, inducing two ground outs and ending things with a strikeout.
Clarke continued in the 7th but lasted just one batter after walking Chris Taylor to start the inning. Joe Mantiply, which I’m still in disbelief over being a real name, entered and issued a walk to Gavin Lux, then Albert Pujols followed by providing a pinch-hit bloop single off a glove to load the bases. After a strikeout, things got weird as Will Smith lined a ball to right that looked like a sacrifice fly, but Rojas clanked it and two runs scored to make it 3-2.
Mookie Betts followed by smacking a ground-rule double to right-center that Locastro got to but seemed to just whiff on to make it 4-2.
After he then hit Muncy to load the bases again, Mantiply was relieved by Stefan Crichton, who not only is a best-selling author but also got a double play to escape without further damage.
Caleb Smith got the 8th for the D-backs, and faced runners on first and second, but the Dodgers couldn’t add insurance.
Victor Gonzalez was given the 8th and started shakily by issuing a four-pitch walk, but rebounded with two ground outs and a soft liner to keep things moving along. Kenley Jansen came in for the save and seemed to find his velocity during the first at-bat, eventually ramping up to the mid-90s again in a dominant showing where he had two strikeouts and a ground out to end it.
Hopefully this is the cue and he can find it at will.
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25-18 and they are creeping up closer back to an expected pace.
The finale of the four-game set will be tomorrow at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST. The Dodgers will push Trevor Bauer back a day and go with a pen game against rookie Riley Smith (6.83 ERA/5.24 FIP/5.74 DRA).
