Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
With the series win within their grasp, Dave Roberts appeared to prioritize resting pen arms over trying to actually win yet again, and the Mets mounted a late comeback. However, the Dodgers made a comeback of their own to send things into extras, but all it ended up doing was extend the game by a frame as they split the series with a 5-4 loss in 10.
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Trevor Williams has been relatively solid for the Mets in split duty this year between starting and relieving, but the Dodgers struck quickly against him in the 1st. A Freddie Freeman double was quickly followed by Trea Turner ambushing the first pitch of the game he saw for his sixth homer of the year to make it 2-0.
That’s basically all the Dodgers bats did for a long time, however. Stranding a lead-off double in the 2nd, they also had two singles in the 5th, but not much else going against Williams.
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After getting relatively shelled by the Pirates last time out, Julio Urias bounced back decently well against a quality Mets lineup. While he limited the damage, it wasn’t easy, especially early.
After working around a walk in the 1st, he gave up an infield single and a pair of walks in the 2nd to load the bases, but he worked out of it without paying any price besides pitches.
Urias would not walk way from the 3rd unscathed, however, as Starling Marte led off by popping an oppo shot to cut the lead in half to 2-1. However, Julio settled in a bit after that, retiring nine in a row into the 6th.
Eddy Alvarez provided some help on D.
With the pitch count getting up there and facing the lineup for the third time, Urias gave up a single to start the 6th and then got a foul out, but that was the end of the road for him: 5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K, 90 Pitches.
Evan Phillips took over and got through the inning despite allowing a single of his own. He handed things off to Caleb Ferguson in the 7th, who started well with a groundout and strikeout, but then hit a batter and that was the end of his outing.
Roberts turned to Brusdar Graterol the day after he gave up a three-run shot, and he responded with a strikeout to end the 7th. However, he then gave up back-to-back doubles to start the 8th, which tied the game at 2-2. After a productive ground out, Graterol hit a batter and the Mets gained a 3-2 lead on a sacrifice fly. Following a walk, his day was done.
Daniel Hudson had yesterday off and everybody has tomorrow off, so god only knows why he wasn’t put in at some point there, but there just seems like a lack of urgency to win of late for whatever reason, much like giving up with a five-run deficit yesterday. 14 fucking pitchers, man. Reinforcements are coming later in the year, what exactly is Dave doing with this? Graterol has also struggled of late, so leaving him out there to die in lieu of almost literally anybody else was just bizarre.
Anyway, Alex Vesia came in and gave up another hit, a single to drive the lead to 4-2 before getting out of the 8th. Just to add some levity to things, after all that Craig Kimbrel was brought in for the 9th down two runs and cruised through a 1-2-3 frame.
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On the other side, the Mets pen entered in the 6th and basically shut them down until the 9th when Will Smith led the inning off with a homer to cut things to 4-3.
That seemed like about all they could muster as two outs followed and Chris Taylor‘s near-miss homer foul seemed like a dead-cat bounce. But he ended up yanking a double down the line in left to set the table and then Alvarez showed had no fear in ripping a first pitch for a single to dramatically tie the game at 4-4.
Kimbrel continued in the 10th, giving up a lead-off double to J.D. Davis for a Mets lead, but he then rebounded with a strikeout and a line-out double play to give the Dodgers hope.
Things seemed promising as they had the top of the lineup ready to go, but the Dodgers did nothing in the 9th aside from a catcher’s interference.
Whee.
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The Dodgers fall to 35-19 and lose another game to the Padres in the NL West, now holding a 2-game lead.
After a day off tomorrow to travel to Chicago, the Dodgers start the White Sox series at 2:10 PM HT/5:10 PM PT/8:10 PM ET with Mitch White against Michael Kopech on TBS.
