Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After an emotional series against the Braves, the Dodgers took two days off, which would be fine if they weren’t playing games against the Rockies. Well, thankfully it seems like they got enough rest or whatever and avoided being swept with an 8-4 victory.
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German Marquez has had a surprisingly terrible year for the Rockies in 2022, and things didn’t get any better for him tonight. Things started early as well, with Freddie Freeman jumping all over a 1st inning pitch for his ninth of the year.
The fireworks continued in the 2nd behind a Cody Bellinger walk, a Jake Lamb single, and a Gavin Lux walk to load the bases. Eddy Alvarez then hit a shallow fly for a sacrifice to plate a run and then Trea Turner drilled a ball off the wall for a two-run double to push things to 4-0.
After a single quiet inning, the offense continued to add in the 4th, as a Lamb walk was followed by a Lux single, and an Alvarez single drove in another run to make it 5-0. Marquez ended up leaving the game after this with injury, which seemed like blisters.
On the other end was Julio Urias, who has been excellent this season, but Coors Field eventually got him a bit.
Urias started well at least, and for the most part he was in minor trouble at most, with a two-out double in the 2nd and a single and another two-out double in the 4th that scored a run to make it 5-1. Some defensive help from the infield was nice, at least.
Fortunately, the Dodgers got that run back and then some off the Rockies pen, with Will Smith capitalizing on a lead-off Freddie single with an absolutely towering shot to left, his 12th homer of the year to give the Dodgers a 7-1 lead.
As I alluded to earlier, Urias didn’t finish as he would’ve liked. After a clean 5th he seemed to be well on his way to a great Coors Field start, but the 6th started with a walk, then a bloop single oddly fell in, which led to an RBI single to knock Urias out of the game.
5.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 89 Pitches
Why three runs and not two? Well Brusdar Graterol came in and immediately allowed an RBI single of his own to make it 7-3. But after that he got two outs while only allowing an infield single more to escape the 6th, and got a 1-2-3 frame in the 7th to move the game along.
With the rain falling down, the Dodgers got back on the board in the 8th with Bellinger smoking his 10th ding dong of the year for an 8-3 lead.
As I said, it was pouring at one point.
Taking over in the 8th was Reyes Moronta, who actually gave up a run on a two-out solo shot by Brendan Rodgers to cut the lead to 8-4.
Then David Price was tasked with the 9th due to the four-run lead, and he allowed a single but got that erased by a double play, then got a strikeout to end it.
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Yency Almonte loves it here.
Happy.
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The Dodgers improve to 46-28 on the year and remain 1.5 games ahead of the Padres in the NL West.
Speaking of the devil, the Dodgers now head home for an important four-game series against the Padres, starting at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET on FS1. The matchup is Mitch White against Joe Musgrove, which is basically a swingman against a Cy Young Award candidate, so winning would be remarkable.
