The Dodgers hung on to beat the Reds on Father’s Day by an 8-7 score. But they almost blew it. The Dodgers had an 8-1 lead in the sixth inning when the Reds scored six runs off the Dodger’s bullpen by scoring once in the sixth, there times in the seventh and twice in the eighth frame to make it close. The Dodgers scored eight runs on ten hits and were 4 for 10 with runners in scoring position. The boys in blue hit two home runs. Logan Forsythe smashed a massive second deck home run and Justin Turner smacked a three-run shot as well. The Dodgers swept the season series from the Reds for the first time since 2006.
The Dodgers got two incredible defensive plays to help preserve the lead. Yasiel Puig made a great diving catch on Eugenio Suarez’s sinking liner in the fourth inning. Kike Hernandez made what was perhaps a game saving catch by leaping against the wall to nab Joey Votto’s deep drive to left in the bottom of the eighth. That catch robbed Votto of an extra-base hit and kept the Dodgers ahead by a run.
Kenta Maeda did as well as can be expected for him at this point. The Japanese right hander tossed five innings allowing just one earned run on three hits and struck out five. That included stranding the bases loaded in the fourth inning. Of course when a pitcher comes into the game averaging over seven runs per start, the Dodger offense is going to eat him alive. Bronson Arroyo gave up five earned runs on seven hits and couldn’t make it out of the third inning.
The Dodger bullpen struggled as Grant Dayton, Josh Fields, and Pedro Baez all gave up runs in relief. The Reds closed the gap in the later frames when Adam Duvall homered in the sixth inning and then Scooter Gennett slugged a three-run home run off of Josh Fields in the seventh inning.
Baez allowed a solo home run to Suarez in the eighth inning that pulled the Reds to within two runs. An RBI double from Billy Hamilton closed the gap to one run with an 8-7 score. The Reds Could have taken the lead when Votto’s deep drive to left with two runners on seemed like it was going to leave the yard or go off the wall, but Kike’s amazing catch saved the Dodger’s bacon.
Turner, Forsythe and Kike all had three hits each and Turner drove in three of the eight runs. Maeda drove in two himself with a two-run double and the Dodgers also drew five walks. The Dodgers left 14 runners on base. Billy Hamilton had three hits for the Reds. Kenley Jansen pitched another perfect ninth inning to record his fifteenth save of the season. He picked up two more whiffs and now has 50 strikeouts without issuing a walk.
The Dodgers are now 44-26 and remain one game behind Colorado who beat the Giants again. The Dodgers will return home tomorrow to begin a nine-game home stand. They’ll open against the Mets. Clayton Kershaw will draw Zack Wheeler in the series opener scheduled to start at 7:10 PM PST.
Nice to see a road sweep.
I’ve mentioned this several times, Please leave Puig batting eighth, quit getting greedy Roberts. Puig will contribute from the eight hole and be totally unproductive up in the line-up, this weekend series illustrates that perfectly.
Well that was a little close for comfort, but they got to Kenley and he closed the door. Kike saved Baez’s bacon and the team’s. Guess the argument about late run scoring not being important will stop. Turner’s 3 run shot became the game winner. The BP had it’s worst game in quite a while. On the other hand, the Giants 20 million dollar closer blew a 2 run lead in the 9th by giving up 4 runs, including a walk off 3 run shot by Arenado. Which by the way allowed Arenado to hit for the cycle. And he did it on the first pitch.
Yes Fields once again gave up another HR, and now he has given up more HRs then Romo has.
I thought he would be the next pitcher sent down, when Stripling went down, because Stripling has only given up two HRs.
Someone said that they were not going with Striplings strengths by having him throw high fastballs, and I think that may be true.
Dayton gave up another HR too, and he has done that to much also.
And I am not sure that Baez has the personality to be a good set up guy.
He lost all of his confidence in that eighth inning, even after Roberts went out there, to show confidence in Baez.
And like Michael said, the only reason we won that game, was not because anything Baez did, it was Kike’s game saving catch and Kenley, who made sure we still won that game.
I don’t expect much from the Mets and their pitching, but any team can win a game in baseball, so they need to keep the pressure on the Rockies.
I saw that inning that Arrenando hit that HR off the Giant’s 60 million dollar closer.
Arrenando is a very likable player, so it is good to see him do well, even though I wanted the Giants to beat them, only for the Dodgers.
Everyone in the bullpen other then Kenley, need to get their act together.
Everyone is entitled to a bad game, and for Baez, this was the first bad game he has had. First time he has allowed more than 1 run. Fields and Dayton, that’s a little harder to figure out. Fields was pitching well until about 10 days ago, since then he has allowed 5 HR’s. Stripling was sent down because his stuff had not been as good. Problem with Grandal is he over calls some of those pitches. He will see guys missing that high fastball and stay with it instead of mixing the pitches up. If that pitch misses and is down in the zone, it is a whack me pitch.
I’m not sure that’s on Grandal.
I think it’s coming from Honeycutt to combat the loft angle craze, which is exacerbated later in games (when team who are behind are looking for the big hit.)
I could be, and probably am, wrong.
Bluto
You are right!
The coaches do play a role, on what our pitchers, throw.
Michael
That is my point about Baez, and that has only been true, this year.
Why was Baez melting down so easily, after he has been better this year?
You get hit that hard with what seems to be your best stuff, and it can mess with your mind a bit. I am sure they talked about it on the way home. What I noticed was that his pitches were almost right down the middle of the plate, at least the ones that got hammered. Not as much late movement on the fast ball because he was hitting 99 on the gun. After you get in trouble and they are still hitting rockets, it is a little hard to figure it out pitch to pitch. His breaking ball, which has been pretty good this year also was out of the zone and not being called for strikes. Kike saved his ass like Puig saved a couple of runs earlier. As for Grandal, they game plan prior to a game, but calling the pitches, that’s on Grandal. He does not look over to Roberts or Honeycutt on each pitch. But more than once this year he has called several high fastballs in a row to some hitters and they have ended up getting hit. He did that to Morse in SF and it cost the Dodgers a win.
Great NY Times article on pitcher preservation:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/sports/baseball/pitchers-jon-lester-300-mark.html
Some interesting notes therefrom:
“Absolutely, going into this season, that was part of the game plan,” Manager Joe Maddon said. “Everybody talks about the World Series; the year before that we went pretty deeply also, and that’s been my concern from the beginning: wear and tear, a lot of innings piled on. But I think we’ve been proactively trying to avoid overworking them early.”
Managers, backed by data, are also growing leery of using a pitcher more than two or three times through a lineup. Last year only 15 starters reached 200 innings, down from 28 in 2015 and 34 in 2014. Detroit’s Justin Verlander was the last to work 250 innings in a season, in 2011.
“Back in the day, if you threw under 250 innings, it wasn’t good,” Lester said. “Now, you get to 200, and it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy.’”
I hope Kershaw pitches a good game tonight, and he is careful, with his first pitches, to hitters.
MJ, that is not CK’s MO. He attacks hitters right from the get-go. That is one of the things Alex Wood has picked up from him and Maeda too. When Maeda was attacking hitters yesterday he was good. He got in trouble when he had runners on because he changed how he was pitching.