Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — This is what happens when a team gets on a roll. No matter what the other team does, no matter what the score is, you just feel that somehow, some way, you’re going to come back and win the game. And for the fifth time in this little homestand, the Dodgers did just back. Falling behind to the Cubs a couple of times in the game, they came up with a three-spot in the bottom of the seventh inning to send Clayton Kershaw home a winner on Saturday night. Jake Lamb and Freddie Freeman provided the key hits in the inning, and Clayton did the rest in a 4-2 victory over Chicago.
Both pitchers rolling early
Through the first time and a half through the batting order, both Clayton Kershaw and Cubs starter Marcus Stroman were on point. Kersh was especially sharp and efficient, needing only six pitches at one point to retire the side in order. The game moved quickly and moved into the middle innings deadlocked at zero.
Cubs break the scoreless tie
In the top of the fifth, the Cubs did the only real damage to Kershaw of the night. And really, it was only one ball that proved to be his undoing. Though his slider was working great all night, he threw one that hung around in the strike zone way too long and Nico Hoerner belted it to right field. It took one hop and landed in the seats. The ground-rule double moved baserunner Seiya Suzuki to third with nobody out. Kershaw did manage to strike out the next hitter Ian Happ for the first out, but gave up a long flyout to Yan Gomes to score Suzuki for the games first run.
Turner and Smith team up to tie the game
The Cubs didn’t have the lead for long. In the bottom of the 6th, the Dodgers got on the board themselves. Trea Turner hit a gapper to left center that just evaded the glove of Nelson Velazquez for a double. Then, with two outs, Mr. Clutch Will Smith came to the plate and drove Turner home with a screaming liner that went off the pitcher’s glove and into center field.
Unearned run puts the Cubs back on top
The Cubbies got to Kersh again in the top of the 7th but needed a close call at third and a throwing error to do it. Patrick Wisdom led off the inning with a double into the right field corner that Mookie Betts didn’t quite field cleanly. It might have been a double either way, but the Betts muff made extra bases inescapable. Then, after Seiya Suzuki grounded into a pretty Trea to Freddie put-out, Wisdom tried to steal third. Catcher Austin Barnes made a good throw on the play, and was called out on the field. However, the Cubs challenged the play and the call was reversed, leaving Wisdom at third with just one out.
The pesky Nico Hoerner came up next, and hit a bouncer to shortstop. Wisdom broke for the plate, and Trea threw home. The ball short-hopped Austin Barnes, and got under his glove, allowing Wisdom to score and Hoerner to take second on the play. It was charged as a throwing error to Turner, and the Cubs were out in front again 2-1.
Lamb blast sparks comeback
If the Dodgers were going to win this one, it would take more late inning heroics to do it. Luckily, the Dodgers were happy to supply them. It started in the bottom of the 7th, with new reliever Rowan Wick on the mound. Wick had trouble finding the strike zone with the lead-off hitter Jake Lamb, and quickly found himself in a 3-1 hole. Having to throw a strike, Wick threw a center-cut fastball that was right in Lamb’s wheelhouse. He turned on the pitch, and for the second straight night, he delivered a game-tying home run, a long drive to centerfield.
Freeman provides the difference
With the score now 2-2, the Dodgers started to mount and old-fashioned rally. Gavin Lux hit a single. Then Cody Bellinger legged out an infield single to the right side of the diamond. After Austin Barnes bunted into a fielder’s choice that retired Lux at third, the Dodgers had men at first and second with one out. Mookie Betts hit a ball into the hole for yet another infield single and the bases were juiced with one out.
After a Trea Turner popup failed to advance any runners, Freddie Freeman dug in for another big at-bat. And as he has done so many times already this year, Freeman came through in the clutch for the Dodgers. It wasn’t his prettiest hit of the year, but it was one of the biggest: a little humpback liner into right field. The ball just cleared the second baseman’s reach and bounced on the outfield grass in front of right fielder Seiya Suzuki. With two outs, the runners had been going on contact, so both Belli and Barnes scored without a throw and the Dodgers were ahead 4-2.
Kershaw’s gem makes strong All-Star case
All the while, Clayton Kershaw was still in this game, and was able to be the beneficiary of all those late runs. He took the mound in the 8th, and got the first two outs of the inning without a problem, but when Patrick Wisdom’s bouncer to third went over the glove of Max Muncy his night was over. He needed one pitch worth of help from Evan Phillips to get out of the 8th, and Craig Kimbrel pitched a fairly clean 9th to secure the victory.
But the night was about Kershaw. After coming up with a second straight strong outing in this homestand, that rough night in Colorado is looking more and more like one of those weird Coors Field anomaly games rather than some sort of regression of the Dodger legend’s stuff. On Friday, it was vintage Kershaw, through and through. Nasty stuff, efficient innings, and lots of swing and miss on that Hall of Fame slider.
It was a great performance, and one that is sure to stay in the front of NL manager Brian Snickter’s mind as he puts together his starting lineup for the All Star Game. Does Kersh deserve a start? Well, it depends on how you define the word deserve. Does he have the best numbers of any NL starter this year? Obviously not. But does his body of work over the last fifteen years merit at least one start in the Midsummer Classic? I think we all know the answer to that.
Urias wraps up great homestand on Sunday
Sunday will be the final game of this enormously successful homestand. Julio Urias will take the mound for the matinee game, going for the Dodgers’ tenth win in the last eleven games. Game time is 1:10. Then, after a travel day on Monday, the Dodgers wrap up the final five games before the Break with a three-game set in St. Louis against the suddenly struggling Cardinals, and a two gamer down in Anaheim with the Angels. And then, the following Tuesday, maybe we get to cheer as Clayton Kershaw takes the mound and throws the first pitch of the 2022 All Star Game.
Cans of Corn…
- With Giants’ win over the Padres on Saturday, the Dodgers now sit with a comfortable seven-game lead in the NL West.
- Jake Lamb is showing us that his amazing Spring Training was no fluke. He is seriously a big league ballplayer again.
- Another multi-hit game for Gavin Lux. His average climbed to .300 during the game, only to slip to .299 on the last at-bat. I know average isn’t everything, but could Luxy be All-Star bound as well?
- As sentimental as I am, I think I would still give the ASG start to Sandy Alcantara or Tony Gonsolin.
- Let’s finish this first half of the season in style! Anyone feel like another six in a row?
