Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers remained the hottest team in baseball this afternoon with a 4-3 victory over the Mets. That marks their ninth consecutive win and they have now won 13 of their last 14 games. They have also now won six in a row against the Mets.
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The Mets starter this afternoon? A dear old friend in Rich Hill AKA Dick Mountain, who deserves a damn ring for his work in 2017.
Still, the Dodgers need this game and they came out firing with Trea Turner smashing his first career homer as a Dodger and Albert Pujols following up later with a solo shot of his own to make it 2-0.
Other than that, Hill only gave up a single through three innings, giving up another to start the 4th but having that erased by a double play. That proved important as Chris Taylor stepped up and cranked the third solo homer of the game for the Dodgers to make it 3-0. Still, Hill never actually faced a batter with a RISP.
Meanwhile, you probably wouldn’t notice it from the linescore, but the Mets made Max Scherzer labor in his fourth start of his career as a Dodger and his second straight against this team.
In every inning he had a runner in scoring position, as he gave up a lead-off double in the 1st and had to work around that, a single that was advanced to second in the 2nd, a single and a stolen base in the 3rd, and an error and a stolen base in the 4th.
The 5th was when the real battle took place, surprisingly after he got two quick outs. However, Brandon Nimmo then homered off the fair pole in right to make it 3-1, then Max gave up a double, hit a batter, and issued a walk to load things up for a key situation. Who else but J.D. Davis could’ve come up in that situation, and once again he was dominated by Dodger pitching, as Scherzer punched him out to end the threat.
Justin Bruihl took over for Scherzer in the 6th, giving up a one-out single but facing the minimum thanks to this Pujols play.
The Dodgers then had a huge chance in their half of the 6th against Miguel Castro. Matt Beaty got things started with a single and a stolen base, but it was Castro who gifted back-to-back walks to AJ Pollock and Corey Seager to load the bases. Castro then got ahead of Taylor with an 0-2 count, but threw four balls in a row to force a run in and make it 4-1.
That led to Jeurys Familia entering and working masterfully out the frame, creating a disaster for the Dodgers. Will Smith popped up to the infield, Cody Bellinger popped out to shallow right, and Justin Turner pinch-hit only to ground out to keep the score the same.
In the 7th, Blake Treinen entered to face the heart of the Mets order, getting the first two outs including a strikeout, but then issuing a walk and giving up a towering two-run homer that hit off the top of the wall in left to make it 4-3.
Familia continued in the 7th for the Mets, giving up a single, but Aaron Loup entered and shut any potential rally down with three outs in a row. Seth Lugo shut down the Dodgers in the 8th as well to close the book on them.
On the other end, Corey Knebel got the 8th for the Dodgers, giving up a single, but getting two ground outs and ending his outing with a strikeout.
That meant Kenley Jansen came back for the second day in a row. He hit the lead-off batter Kevin Pillar, but then got a fly out to left in which Pillar tried to tag on Pollock, who had him dead out at second but Turner couldn’t pick it.
Kenley then rebounded with with back-to-back strikeouts of Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso to slam the door.
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Cody got left hanging.
Pujols is the blueprint.
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The Dodgers improve to 78-46 on the year and are now 1 game back in the NL West of the Giants. It’s happening.
The four-game sweep will be on the line as David Price (3.62 ERA/4.03 FIP/3.85 xERA) squares off against Marcus Stroman (2.84/3.53/4.36) at 10:10 AM HT/1:10 PM PT/4:10 PM ET.
