Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After their dramatic comeback win yesterday to breakup a losing streak, the Dodgers got right back to their winning ways tonight against the suddenly hot Diamondbacks.
Tony Gonsolin set a season high in strikeout and limited the damage, while the Dodger bats scored five unanswered at one point in a 5-4 win.
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Gonsolin took the ball as just about the only Dodger starter to not get shelled recently and he continued to avoid that fate. After a clean 1st, he did give up a no-doubter to Christian Walker to start the 2nd, but rebounded by striking out the side in the 3rd. He got a bit unlucky in the 4th, with a lead-off bloop double followed by a Trea Turner error to corner the runners with nobody out. But Gonsolin wiggled out of that as well as could be expected with a sacrifice fly and a double play to keep the deficit to just 2-0.
A clean 5th then led to two-out trouble in the 6th, but Gonsolin got the trust of Dave Roberts (and perhaps knowledge of needed length given the doubleheader), and worked around a single and a walk for his deepest outing of the season: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 7 K, 92 Pitches.
Madison Bumgarner looked like he turned back the clock for the first three innings, giving up just an infield single. Cracks started to show in the 4th, with back-to-back singles to lead things off being stranded.
Then the 5th happened. Chris Taylor started things off promisingly with a double into the left-center gap and then Austin Barnes drew a walk. Later Mookie Betts jumped on the first pitch and drilled a ball to center, so hard that it bounced off Alek Thomas and to the wall for a two-base game-tying error that had Betts ending on third,
Freddie Freeman smelled blood in the water and quickly took advantage with a double down the line in left for a 3-2 lead.
The pen then entered for MadBum in the 6th and was greeted first surprisingly with a Max Muncy bunt for a hit and then rudely by a Taylor oppo taco for a 5-2 lead.
That meant the Dodgers pen had a lead to protect, and they first turned to Caleb Ferguson making his debut from Tommy John surgery. After a lead-off walk, he then rebounded with a strikeout and two groundouts.
Daniel Hudson took over in the 8th and rebounded confidently from some recent struggles, getting a clean nine-pitch inning that included a strikeout.
While the Dodgers threatened in the 7th with two walks, they didn’t score the rest of the way, which meant Craig Kimbrel actually got a save chance in the 9th. After an infield single against the shift, David Peralta (of course) skied a two-run homer to cut the lead to 5-4.
Thankfully Kimbrel rebounded with a strikeout and a weak grounder.
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The meme generators.
Fooled Joe Davis.
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The Dodgers are now 22-12 and with the Padres idle now have a half-game lead in the NL West.
Tomorrow … well it’s a doubleheader. The first game will be at 9:10 AM HT/12:10 PM PT/3:10 PM ET with (probably) Ryan Pepiot against Tyler Gilbert and the second game being at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET with Tyler Anderson against Merrill Kelly.
