It looks like the Dodgers have their swagger back as they defeated the Nationals 3-2 to win their fourth consecutive game. The one-run victory gives them a series win and pushes the boys in blue to seven games in front of the Nationals for the top spot in the National League.
The Dodgers got a break this afternoon since Stephen Strasburg was originally scheduled to start but Washington decided to hold him back a day. He’ll start on Sunday in the series finale. So instead the Dodgers faced young right hander A.J. Cole. Opposing him was southpaw Rich Hill.
The Dodgers also are getting another break that they don’t have to face Bryce Harper. He’s still out and the Nationals are unsure as to when he’ll be able to return to action. So this is not exactly the playoff preview that everyone was hoping for. In the meantime the Nationals have already clinched the NL East and it seems unlikely they’ll be able to catch the Dodgers for the number one seed. So it appears they have little left to play for the rest of the regular season.
Dodgers 3 7 1
Nationals 2 4 0
WP-Hill-10-8
LP-Cole-2-5
SV-Jansen-38
HR-Bellinger-38-Rendon-24
The Dodgers took advantage of the ambivalent Washington nine. The Dodgers got off to an early lead scoring single runs in the second and third inning. Cole was out of the game after five innings and he allowed three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts. Cody Bellinger smashed his 38th home run of the season in the top of the second to tie the rookie home run record. In the top half of the third, Chase Utley doubled (his first of two doubles) and after a Corey Seager ground out, Justin Turner was hit by a pitch. Bellinger’s RBI single to left would score Utley and give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the fifth the Dodgers would add another run when Utley doubled (again), Seager singled him to third and Turner’s sacrifice fly scored Utley to put the Dodgers up 3-1.
The National’s bats were utterly stifled thanks to a superlative performance from Hill. The lefty tossed five innings allowing just one earned run on one hit and struck out seven. He made 74 pitches total. The lone hit he allowed was a solo home run to Anthony Rendon in the fourth inning.
The Dodgers bullpen kept the Washington offense in check and the Dodgers in control of the game. Josh Fields pitched a scoreless sixth inning and Brandon Morrow then pitched a scoreless seventh inning. However the eighth inning was where all the action occurred. Fortunately as Oscar would say, Yasiel Puig happened.
Ross Stripling began the inning with the Dodgers leading 3-1. He struck out Michael Taylor for the first out but allowed pinch-hitter Wilmer Difo to reach on a chopper to short that Seager couldn’t handle. The Dodgers would hook Stripling and go to lefty Tony Watson in a match-up against pinch-hitter Adam Lind. Seager would muffle another grounder as Lind reached on the error and Difo goes to third. Trea Turner singles to left to score Difo and the Dodger lead is cut to 3-2. Watson then gets former Dodger Howie Kendrick to fly to center and Daniel Murphy (the Dodger devil) smacks a sinking liner to right, but Puig lays out for an incredible catch to save the game for the Dodgers. What a catch!
Kenley Jansen would then come in for the bottom of the ninth and retire the side in order to record his 38 save of the season. The Dodgers improve their record to 96-52 and reduce the magic number down to just 5. The disgusting 11-game losing streak seems like a distant memory now. Thank god.
The Dodgers go for the sweep on ESPN Sunday night baseball. Stephen Strasburg stands in their way. The Dodgers will give the ball to Hyun-jin Ryu to counter.
Brutus, you asked the following at the end of the last thread:
Does this qualify as recaptured momentum?
That and “clutch” are silly, in my opinion.
Well Brutus, sometimes questions like this are best answered with a question,
so here goes, You never played organized sports, did ya?
Brutus, when you are in a hole, quit digging!
Oh no. You were doing so well with useful discussion.
Now your back to confused metaphors and leading questions.
It was good when your contributions were positive.
It was even better when you had any value to any of your comments. Go back to cut and pasting others articles and morphing them into your post. It’s obvious you have no clue what you are talking about and have never been in any organized sports, probably not even little league. You got nothing.
Good argument style, keep raising non-sensical points.
Or, you can keep with the other pathetic rhetorical flourishes like sophomoric nicknames (Reddickson? Did you take ten seconds or twenty to develop that one?) or the poorly written and poorly received ‘apology.’
I,like you, never played pro ball. And that prohibits neither from commenting.
You didn’t play any ball at any level, you can at least be honest. You did nothing, you know nothing. You have no original thought and you are a bore.
I saw your chippy comments you sniped out in the last thread. You go smug and chippy, I’m going to call your ass on it.
You really have no clue about this sports thing. Just because you drank a brew in a stadium once and read sports articles, doesn’t mean you know much.
Keep guessing, speculating and day-dreaming realities.
They add zero.
Zero. That’s an interesting and relevant number. Why? Because it’s also the number of times that somebody welcomed you back to this board, or intoned they missed you while you were gone.
Even with my limited organized sports background that’s the sign of a loser.
Let’s get back to baseball, shall we?
I for one would not have pulled Hill after 74 pitches to have Forsythe PH. There was only 2 on, one out. Forsytye was likely to either strikeout looking or walk, neither helps. And he’s been playing enough – it’s not going to change. I would have had Hill bat or have Farmer audition and see if he could deliver.
I don’t mind Roberts going for the kill with a PH. Forsythe was a good matchup.
I was worried because McCullough intimated that Hill could have been yanked due to a blister problem. Not sure if that was refuted or what….
Good win, Puig makes a game saving catch and then Granderson makes a great catch to end it………important win. More separation against the Nats.
93 losses for the Giants!
Artieboy
Giants are only forty games behind the Dodgers!
I guess they needed more then just a closer, and how about their closer, they signed, what a deal!
This is why we are Dodgers fans, a few weeks of hell, just draws you even farther in, and then the Dodgers get right back, to what they were doing.
I just think this proves that bad streak was more about Cody, and Corey, being out of the line up, back to back, then anything else!
I’d say the losing streak was about our starters sucking and our bullpen going through a slump. We are not out of the woods yet. Last night was saved by the defense – Watson threw a bad pitch and Murphy lined out.
YF
You are forgetting our hitters, helped our pitchers out, quite a bit, during that streak, especially coming from behind in games!
Verlander goes 7 innings and 10k. Another W with only 1 run given up. Sigh….
I would hold up on that have their swagger back. I think the last 4 games have been much crisper than the baseball they were playing before. They got the monkey off their back and have played better. But the starters and the bullpen have done the job they were not doing during the slide. The hitters got more selective, but they still are not doing well with runners in scoring position. D-Backs lost today so the magic number is down to 4. If they hold on to the lead they have in this game it will drop to 3 and they can clinch in Philly.
Looks like Werth was robbed. Too bad. F Jason Werth(less)!
Not Strippling’s night!
I’m on record: I don’t like that strike zone box, I find it annoying.
Grandal looking there on 2-2 was a killer. Can we get him benched please. That pitch was close enough to foul off. Even Strasburg was fouling plenty of off speed pitches. Give me a break.
Now we are behind.
Stripling came into the game yesterday, and allowed a run.
And Stewart pitched two scoreless innings, in that first game!
And they should have went out to Ryu to rest him, after he walked the pitcher!
And they should have never skipped his start last week either!
When Dave brought Ravin in, I knew it was over!
These games broadcasted by ESPN or Fox, make it even harder on Dodger fans, because they are so biased!
We won the first two games, and we were not throwing our ace!