The Dodgers put their modest four-game winning streak on the line tonight, sending Alex Wood, who skipped a start after a bad game against the Cardinals, to the mound in the final of a two-game series against the Texas Rangers.
Cody Bellinger cracked the scoring seal with a powerful home run (21) to center field in the third inning. Manny Machado (32) then took the first pitch of the fourth and sent that one beyond the CF fence.
In the meantime, Wood knocked the Rangers down, with excellent location and movement on his fastball and breaking pitches. He ended the night with seven scoreless innings, five Ks, and two walks.
Yasiel Puig shook things up in the seventh with a 2 out triple, punctuated by one of his patented, tongue wagging, headfirst slides into third. Full disclosure, he came up a bit short and bounced his face into the dirt about a foot short of the bag. Luckily, he pulled his tongue in before he crash-landed. Puig then attempted to steal of home, but was thrown out at the plate. Giving credit where due, it wasn’t a bad play. The third baseman was far off the line and the left-handed pitcher was completely ignoring Puig. It was going to take a perfectly executed play to get him, and the Rangers pulled it off.
No problem, as Yasmani Grandal continued the solo home run parade in the eighth, with a blast from the right side of the plate (21) to put the Dodgers up 3-0.
Scott Alexander took over for Wood with a one, two, three eighth inning. With Kenley Jansen sitting in the dugout, Kenta Maeda took the mound in the ninth.
With one out and a walked batter on first, Adrian Beltre hit a double to centerfield to break up the shut out, and get the Rangers on the board 3-1.
After a long battle, Maeda got a pop up and walked the next batter on four pitches. Then he got the next batter to ground out to Cody Bellinger on the first pitch he saw to end the game and preserve the save and the sweep.
Up next: The Dodgers open a weekend series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in a fight for the in L West lead. Now things get really interesting.
Oscar Martinez
I was born in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and immediately drenched in Dodger Blue. Chavez Ravine is my baseball cathedral, Vin Scully was the golden voice of summer all my life, and Tommy Lasorda remains the greatest Dodgers manager ever. My favorite things are coffee, beer, and the Dodgers beating the Giants. I also blog about my baseball card hobby at All Trade Bait, All the Time.
Follow Me:
What looked like a simple save situation in the bottom of the 9th inning with a 3-0 lead, Maeda began to imitate Jansen, creating a very shaky, nail-biting situation giving up a combination of walks and hit, and making this save seem so much more complicated than it had to be. Well, that’s baseball, but it is also Maeda.
I was hoping that Maeda could be that backup closer with Kenley’s upcoming therapy that will probably have him sitting for the better part of a week or more (or should), but Maeda exudes little confidence in me. In fact, I think he is nothing more than a long reliever if the Dodgers train him properly. The backup closer spot should be handed to Stripling if he ever returns or we will have no finger nails left come mid-September.
We ride a 5 game winning streak that will meet Arizona in probably the most important series we will have enroute to first place in the division. The boys will have to regain that hitting momentum that is so elusive and not rely on the HR to keep them in and win games. The HR is just fine as long as it is a supplementary tool to our basic get-on-base strategy and score runs! Manny seems to be getting in the mood which is great to see. Get Taylor out of the infield, get Muncy to leadoff, get Kemp in LF and let’s rock.
Dodgers claimed Ryan Madson from the Nats on revocable waivers. No deal yet. They have 48 hours to finalize a trade.
I like it. He’s got some mileage, 12 years in MLB. Big body, plenty of relief and save experience, decent WHIP and ERA. He’s obviously handpicked by FAZ and has only 3 blown saves this year. He’s 38 and his 2018 contract is $7.6M. We probably won’t have to pay most of it and he is a FA after this season. This could be our ace rental in the hole for the bullpen. Watch out, Kenley.
Jeff his ERA is over 9 in August, but maybe they think Honeycutt can fix him.
Without Woods pitching a really good game, this game might have not turned out like it did.
We are facing a couple starters in this next series, that are tough against lefties.
And Corbin is a leftie, but he has reverse splits, so I hope Roberts and the front office, know that lefties hit Corbin better then righties.
I don’t want to see the same end of the line up of Puig, Kike’, and Taylor, against Corbin, because of his reverse splits, against righties.
They haven’t hit lefties well this year anyways, and I don’t want them to be in the line up against Corbin.
Just think how that game might have turned out, if the Rangers starter would have been more careful, with his first pitches.
Jeff
You need to saturate yourself in player knowledge and rating. Madson is not a great reliever with a decent ERA and WHIP. A ERA of 5.28 and WHIP of 1.42 is terrible. If you think he was worth 7.6 mil for this year you need to reevaluate that thought. Being an Ace rental is over the top! Watch out Kenley? You have definitely lost it!
Haha! It was said, tongue-in-cheek, package. It was a joke.
I think Buehler is our postseason closer if Jansen can’t get it together. He can be unhittable if he can go all out for an inning, and he also showed me this year that he is a battler out there.
Kiebert Ruiz will be playing in the Arizona fall league this year. One of six Dodger farmhands to do so. He is the only name I recognized. Verdugo made the all PCL all star team. Yueh, I don’t think there is a snowballs chance in hell Buehler is the closer in the postseason if they get there. Too many other options and they are going to need him in the rotation. Otherwise the entire rotation is lefty’s. Stripling is a better option if healthy, and they have a couple of guys who throw pretty hard. Hell, the way he is pitching, Baez is not a bad option at this point. He has turned his year around and he hits 98 on the gun.
Ruiz, Sheffield and Errol Robinson are pretty well regarded.
The Dodgers don’t usually send their top pitching prospects to the AFL.
Still no word on a deal for Madson. They have until tomorrow afternoon to work one out. He is owed about 1.7 mil for the rest of the year. 38 years old, he and Hill should get along great. ERA for the year is a little over 5.
Wow this line up looks sad. Kike at 1st…. Really? I am OK playing him, but Taylor is an auto out, and Barnes in there is just scary. Hope I am wrong, but Doc went with the all righty lineup, he can live or die by it!!!
Just hope we have position players later if we don’t hit bombs all night, because this lineup just doesn’t look like a scrappy station to station group
Wow this line up looks sad. Kike at 1st…. Really? I am OK playing him, but Taylor is an auto out, and Barnes in there is just scary. Hope I am wrong, but Doc went with the all righty lineup, he can live or die by it!!! Just hope we have position players if we don’t hit bombs all night because this lineup just doesn’t look like a scrappy station to station group
That’s not (station to station) how baseball is being played these days.
Jeez Kemp has just fallen apart in the 2nd half.
McCutcheon to the Yankees…..Duda to the Braves……Stewart to the D-Backs….trades completed so far……
Why is Taylor even on the roster. 3 more strikeouts swinging for the fence, well at least he didn’t go down looking. Albeit way too many K’s so far tonight.
Their catcher sucks as much as our centerfielder at the plate
Pitching is getting it done, the squirrels ain’t awake.
test