Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After starting the East Coast road trip 4-1, the Dodgers (or at least their defense) seemed to take their foot off the throttle a bit and dropped the final two, including a sloppy 5-3 loss to the Mets today to drop the rubber match of the series.
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Clayton Kershaw made his return from back issues today, but things looked surprisingly shaky early on. With one down in the 1st, he walked a batter, gave up a single, and walked another to load the bases. He seemed to rebound with a infield pop, but then shockingly walked a batter in for the game’s first run.
Of course, to say he rebounded after that would be selling him short, honestly. He retired the rest of the 13 batters he faced after the walk and looked generally outstanding after the rust came off.
5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 6 K, 74 Pitches
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Opposing him was Chris Bassitt, who seemed to be on the ropes a bit on the 2nd after a one-out double by Justin Turner and a single by Gavin Lux cornered the runners. A Trayce Thompson walk then loaded the bases, and Chris Taylor blooped a single down the line in right for a 2-1 lead. However, the Dodgers ran into an out at home on an odd situation.
Thus the Dodgers would get no more in the inning, and really the rest of the game against Bassitt. They didn’t get another rally until two outs in the 6th, when back-to-back two-out walks and a wild pitch put a pair in scoring position that were unfortunately left stranded.
That gave the Mets enough time to rally, starting off Chris Martin in the 6th. A Lux internal clock miscalculation led to an infield single on a routine grounder and things snowballed from there as Francisco Lindor doubled to tie the game, stole third, and then came home on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2 for the Mets.
Caleb Ferguson got the 7th and seemed like he might cruise, but he gave up a two-out double and then a “single” to right that was misplayed by Lux and Mookie Betts, allowing the ball to drop for a run. A Starling Marte single followed for yet another run and all of a sudden it was 5-2 for the Mets.
Heath Hembree has become relevant all of a sudden with the pen a mess, and he did his job with a scoreless 8th and wrapped things up on the Mets.
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For the Mets pen, it was Trevor May for a scoreless 7th, and then Edwin Diaz for the 8th against the heart of the order. Surprisingly, he struggled a bit, walking Freddie Freeman to start then hitting Will Smith to put a pair on. Max Muncy and JT then followed with back-to-back deep flies … to the warning track that advanced runners and made it 5-3, but man they missed out on more.
That setup Adam Ottavino for the save in the 9th, who cruised through a 1-2-3 frame.
Well, they deserved to lose, really.
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90-40 on the year and 45-24 on the road.
| TEAM | CHASE | GAMES |
|---|---|---|
| Astros | MLB | 6.5 Up |
| Mets | NL | 7 Up |
| Padres | NL West | 18 Up |
The Dodgers will now head home and welcome the Padres to Chavez Ravine at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET. The matchup will be a marquee one with Dustin May facing Yu Darvish.
