Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — It was a tight one for most of a very hot Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. After a quiet first half of the ballgame, the Dodgers and Giants went back and forth with the long ball in the 5th and 7th innings, and the game went into the 8th knotted at three. Then, thanks to yet another Max Muncy dinger, the home team erupted for a four-run inning to finally put this home run derby to an end. Their 7-3 victory secured the series victory and finished out a 4-2 homestand. And, the Dodgers’ magic number inches ever so closer to zero.
Kersh puts together a quality outing
Once again, more than the outcome of the contest, the important news from this game was made on the mound in the first six innings of the ballgame. It was the second start off the IL for the Dodgers’ ace lefty Clayton Kershaw. And, for the most part, the news was very good. He threw 86 pitches in this one as he stretches himself out to work back to full strength. In all, Kersh went six innings, and the lone runs scored off him were on a two-run homer from David Villar in the bottom of the fifth. Kershaw’s total line for the day: 6.0 IP, 5 H 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K.
JT blast puts Dodgers in the lead
The Villar bomb put the Giants up 2-0, put their lead was very short lived. In the bottom of the fifth, the middle of the Dodger order got busy in a hurry. Freddie Freeman led off with another of his patented opposite field hits, this one a line-drive single. Then, Max Muncy poked a stick in the eye of fans of the shift by dropping a perfectly placed bunt single down the vacated left side of the infield.
That put runners and first and second with nobody out. And with hot-hitting Justin Turner coming up, it was the Dodgers’ best chance to score since they’d squandered a bases loaded, nobody out opportunity in the second inning. Having already extending his hitting streak to 16 earlier in the game, Turner dug in looking to do damage against starter Alex Cobb. On a 1-2 Turner got a splitter that was waaay low, but JT managed to put a good swing on it. He golfed it into left center and let the afternoon heat to the rest of the work. It made it to the home run seats, and got the home team in the lead 3-2.
However, David Villar hit his second homer of the game in the 7th (this one off Justin Bruihl), to tie the game, and it looked like things might be heading into extra frames, which given the weather, nobody was rooting for.
Small ball, then long ball to bust it open
The Dodgers’ big 8th inning started innocently enough. Hitting out of the nine-hole, Austin Barnes squeaked a seeing-eye single through the left side of the infield for a lead-off hit. Mookie Betts had an excuse-me tapper down the line that was as good as a sacrifice bunt as Barnes easily took second on the play as Betts was retired at first. Then with one out, Trea Turner broke the tie with a screaming line drive over the head of Joc Pederson in left. Barnes was able to scamper home with one of the very few runs in the series that wasn’t scored via the homer. But it was that run that proved to be the difference in the ball game.
Just for good measure, after a Freddie Freeman walk, Max Muncy pulled a home run to right to put another three-spot on the scoreboard. It was Muncy’s third homer in the last 24 hours, and yes, Max is still very much the Giants’ daddy.
With a comfortable lead, Alex Vesia came on and got the final three outs of the game. After a bit of a listless first game, the Dodgers came alive in the final two to take the series. They are now 52 games above .500 for the second time this season.
Dodgers hit the road for nine
After an off-day on Thursday, the Dodgers will be on the road again for over a week, but the good news is that they will be lots of short flights involved, unlike the recent LA-to-Miami-to-New York-back-to-LA trip. It’s Padres, D-backs, and Giants for the last extended road trip of the year. Then, nine of the final twelve games will be back at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers will send Dustin May to the mound to start things off at Petco Park on Friday evening. He’ll lock horns with Mike Clevinger. Both pitchers will be eager to erase the rough outing from the last time these two teams played, so we’ll see who gets back on the beam. First pitch: 6:40 pm.
Cans of corn…
- Joey Gallo got hit with a pitch on the elbow and had to come out of the game. Hope he’s okay.
- A sweep in San Diego will be enough to clinch the division.
- Hope Evan Phillips isn’t showing fatigue. He hasn’t been quite as sharp the last couple of outings.
- All but two of the runs in this series were scored via the home run. That’s about enough of that.
