Roger Arrieta
ARLINGTON—The Dodgers used a pair crooked-number innings fueled by home runs to even their series in Texas. Cody Bellinger hit a towering 2-run shot in the third inning and then Max Muncy hit a 3-run homer in the seventh to lead Los Angeles to a 7-4 win over the Rangers.
The seven runs put up by the offense was a welcome site after LA got beat 6-2 on Friday. Blake Treinen earned his third win of the year after he came on in relief of starter Ross Stripling in the sixth inning and didn’t give up a hit in 1.1 innings of work. The win evens the weekend series and ups the Dodgers’ overall record to 25-10. Texas is now 12-20 for the year.
GAME RECAP: Unlike Friday’s game where Los Angeles was facing one of the worst pitchers in the American League, the Dodgers had to solve the riddle of Lance Lynn who was 4-0 on the year, had a 1.59 ERA and was at the top of the list of starting pitchers for Monday’s trade deadline. The Dodgers had success by zoning in on Lynn’s fastball and knocked him out in the seventh inning after he threw 110 pitches. LA had runners on base in four of the six innings they faced Lynn and started their 7-run afternoon in the second inning. AJ Pollock gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead when he turned on a rare off-speed pitch from Lynn and lined it down the left field line which scored Matt Beaty from first base after Beaty hit a 1-out single up the middle.
Bellinger pushed the lead to 3-0 in the third when he launched a moon ball on a 3-2 fastball that cleared the right field fence and landed 402 feet from home plate. Bellinger’s ninth long ball of the year plated Muncy who came through with a 2-out double into the right field corner. The Rangers were able to get both runs back in the bottom of the frame on solo HR’s from the No.8 and No.9 hitters in the order.
The teams would trade identical run totals in the fifth to bring the score to 4-3. Muncy just missed connecting on a 3-run shot when he hit a deep sacrifice fly into the right-center gap that scored Austin Barnes. Barnes led off the inning with a walk and went to third when Mookie Betts scorched a double into the left field corner. Texas matched the sacrifice score in the bottom of the fifth on a 1-out fly ball to left off the bat of Shin-Soo Choo. Ronald Guzmán led off with an infield single and advanced to second on a walk to Leody Taveras which chased Stripling from the game. Treinen relieved Stripling. On his fifth pitch to Choo, he threw a slider which Barnes knocked down but couldn’t find in the dirt between his feet. Guzmán advanced to third but Taveras got a late break from first and Barnes was able to find the ball in time to throw him out trying to go to second on the wild pitch. Choo would score Guzmánon the very next pitch.
Los Angeles won the game in the seventh after Betts coaxed a 1-out walk and Corey Seager followed with a line drive single on a 2-2 off-speed pitch. Betts and Seager pulled off the rare double steal to advance to second and third which set the stage for Muncy. He got ahead 3-1 against reliever Taylor Hearn, waited on a fastball and deposited the pitch into the first row of seats in the right field bleachers. Texas got a single run back in the bottom of the inning off of reliever Caleb Ferguson. The Rangers scored on a 2-out throwing error from Seager that scored Guzmán from second after he double down the left field line. Choo hit a high chopper which Seager had to wait on for the bounce. When he was able to collect the ball he had to rush the throw and it sailed it over the head of Beaty at first base. Brusdar Graterol took over for Ferguson and doused the rally when he got Todd Frazier to line out to right field.
Graterol ran into trouble at the start of the eighth. He was able to get out of a first-and-second jam with no one out when he induced a 4-6-3 double play grounder off the bat of Isiah Kiner-Falefa and then got Robinson Chirinos on a routine fly ball to right field. Kenley Jansen pitched entered in the ninth inning struggled to find his rhythm. He gave up a leadoff walk to Guzmán and then battled through the next three batters. Jansen was eventually able to post a pair of strikeouts and a ground ball out to finish off the win and get the save.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
IT’S FUN TO BE IN FIRST: The victory pushes the Dodger’s lead in the NL West back to 5.0 games. San Diego lost on a Daniel Murphy walkoff single in the ninth at Colorado on Saturday and is a full 5.0 games behind the Dodgers. The victory also pushed LA’s MLB-leading win total to 25. Oakland is second with 22 wins. The Dodgers have been in first place for 22 days this season and their 5-game lead ties their largest lead of the year.
OBSCURE STATS OF THE DAY: Texas scored six runs on Friday and added four more on Saturday which marked the first time all season that Los Angeles has given up more than three runs in back-to-back games. What makes that stat even more odd is that the Rangers entered the weekend last in the AL in runs scored. They were averaging just 3.6 runs per game in their first 30 contests of the year. The Dodgers are now 5-8 when they give up more than three runs in a game.
NO BACK-TO-BACK: The win kept the Dodgers from losing back-to-back games for only the third time this season. LA has only been on the wrong side of the score in consecutive games on only two occasions and has now gone 17 games without losing two straight games.
A MONTH-LONG BAD BATCH OF CHICKEN STRIPS: Stripling will be extremely happy to see the calendar turn over to September. He only went 4.0 innings, gave up four hits – which included two homers and three earned runs on Saturday. The start was his fifth of the month and he hasn’t lasted more than 5.2 innings in any of those outings. Stripling has given up 10 long balls in August and has a 7.17 ERA in the month. Here’s hoping he returns to his July form when he made two starts, went 2-0 and had a 2.92 ERA.
GETTING THE GOLDEN GOOSE: Jansen’s ninth save of the year was also the 310th of his career. That number equals Yankees’ Hall of Fame closer Rich “Goose” Gossage. The two are deadlocked for the No.25 spot on the list of save leaders in MLB history. Jansen’s next save will push him past Gossage and tie him with former Toronto Blue Jay closer Tom Henke (1982-95). Jansen’s nine saves lead the NL this season and are third among closers in both leagues.
RISP STRUGGLE BUS CONTINUES: The Dodgers went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position on Friday night and that trend continued on Saturday when they were 2-for-10 on chances to score a runner. The Dodgers entered the Texas series among the Top 3 in MLB in hitting with runners in scoring position but the 4-for-22 (.182) performance has dropped LA to fifth with a .288 with RISP.
NUMBER 9 TEAMMATES: Both Bellinger and Muncy hit their ninth homer of the season. The pair also accounted for all six of the team’s RBI on the day. The duo also holds the distinction of being tied for second on the team in long balls while still hitting under .230. Bellinger’s average is at .224. Muncy’s 2-for-4 performance upped his season mark to .198. The two hits for Muncy represented only his second multiple-hit game in the 26 games he has played in the month of August. The good news for Muncy is that he has hit safely in six of the past eight games and has a .308 (8-for-26) average during that stretch.
DING DONG DANDYS: The 2-homer game was a return to multiple long balls in a contest. LA had gone three games without hitting more than one dinger in a game which one shy of their longest multiple-homer streak of the year. Bellinger and Muncy’s bombs keep LA in the No.1 spot in MLB for yard shots. The Dodgers have 65 homers on the year which are two more than the suddenly red-hot Chicago White Sox.
DEFENSE, DEFENSE WHERE FOR ART THOU?: The 7th-inning error from Seager continued a stretch of error-prone games from the normally, sure-handed Dodgers’ defense. LA has committed at least one miscue in 10 of the last 14 games and has made 15 overall errors during that stretch. The Dodgers have made 20 errors on the year which is tied for eighth most in MLB.
ON DECK: The Dodgers will look to keep their season-long series unbeaten streak alive when they face the Rangers in a morning special on Saturday at 11:35 a.m. Tony Gonsolin will bring his 0.00 ERA to the mound for his fourth start of the year. Despite not giving up a run, and having a minuscule 0.550 WHIP, Gonsolin has yet to win a game in 2020. The Dodgers are 2-1 in Gonsolin’s three starts and he is coming off a 6.0-inning, 2-hit performance against Seattle on Aug. 18. Gonsolin will go up against veteran right-hander Kyle Gibson. Gibson is 1-3 with a 5.73 ERA and a 1.485 WHIP in 2020. His latest outing was against Oakland on Aug. 25 when he went 6.1 innings, gave up seven runs on six hits and walked two. Gibson, who pitched the first seven years of his career for the over-hyped Minnesota Twins, has faced the Dodgers once in his career. That start came in 2014 at Target Field when he allowed five earned runs on nine hits in 6.2 innings and was saddled with the loss.
