Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — This is more like it! After a weird and wild weekend against the Fightin’ Phils, Monday’s game was a welcome return to normalcy. Good starting pitching, good work out of the pen (until the 9th anyway). Good at-bats and timely hitting. It all added up to a business-like 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks as the Dodgers open up a four-game series against their divisional rivals.
Dodgers fall behind early
As has been their habit of late, the Dodgers were playing from behind in this one. The Diamondbacks jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. First baseman Christian Walker took Tony Gonsolin deep for a solo shot to put the D-backs up early.
Then, in the top of the fourth, Gonsolin was undone by some shoddy defense. Leading off the inning, Ketel Marte hit a popup that Justin Turner just couldn’t get to on the left side. It dropped in for a bloop double, and suddenly there was a man in scoring position. Then, what looked like a routine groundball was booted by Trea Turner to put runners at the corners with nobody out. All things considered Gonsolin was lucky to escape the inning giving up only one run on a sacrifice fly.
Dodgers get to MadBum in the fifth
Longtime Dodger nemesis Madison Bumgarner was on the mound for the Snakes in this one, and for the first four innings, he seemed to be rolling. The Dodgers just managed three harmless singles off of him the first two times through the batting order. However, that all changed in the blink of the eye. Chris Taylor led off the inning by banging a double into the left centerfield gap. Then Austin Barnes drew a walk in a good at-bat. After a Gavin Lux pop-out, Mookie Betts stepped into the box. And Mookie did Mookie things.
He tattooed a pitch into center field that skipped past outfielder Alek Thomas and rolled all the way to the wall. By the time the ball made it back to the infield, both runners had scored and Betts was hugging third with a RBI single and a two-base error. The Dodgers weren’t done there. The next hitter, Freddie Freeman, banged an opposite field double down the left field line that easily scored Betts to make the score 3-2 and give the Dodgers a lead that they would never relinquish.
Gonsolin has a strong night
Tony Gonsolin had one of his better outings in this one. He was pounding the zone all night, landing north of 70% of first pitch strikes. In a 92-pitch outing, Gonsolin threw 67 strikes. He got into a little two-out trouble in his final inning of work, but in true Gonsolin fashion, he struck out Josh Rojas with two men and and walked off the mound to the appreciative cheers of the Dodger faithful. His final line for the night: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 7 K. Caleb Ferguson, Daniel Hudson, and Craig Kimbrel finished things up.
Taylor’s homer extends the lead
With Gonsolin out of the ballgame, the Dodger offense made sure that the pen had a bigger margin of error. In the bottom of the sixth, Max Muncy led off with a bunt single (yes, you read that right). Then, Chris Taylor came up and ripped a 2-0 sinker from new reliever Sean Poppen over the right field fence for an opposite field home run to extend the lead to 5-2. Taylor has had quite a turnaround after an atrocious road trip. In the last few games in LA, he has six hits and two home runs. Good to see that kind of bounce-back from CT3. It turns out that the Taylor home run was the difference, as Craig Kimbrel gave up a two-run home run in the ninth to make things a little too close for comfort.
Double dip on Tuesday
As this brutal stretch continues, the Dodgers have a double header scheduled for Tuesday and then an afternoon game on Wednesday. So that is a whole lot of baseball in the next 48 hours. Looks like we’ll get another look at Ryan Pepiot on Tuesday, and probably Tyler Anderson in the other game. Not quite sure how Dave Roberts wants to line them up. It will be a traditional day-night double header with the first game starting at 12:10, and then the stadium will empty out, and then they’ll fill it up again for the nightcap, which starts at 7:10. Hopefully, the Dodger can keep this newfound momentum rolling. As Ernie Banks used to say, “Let’s play two!”
Cans of Corn…
- Dave Roberts was out on the field with Max Muncy prior to the game working on bunting. Muncy immediately put it to work in the game, getting his first bunt base hit in more than two years.
- Caleb Ferguson pitched a scoreless seventh inning in his return to the mound after missing well over a year to Tommy John surgery. He walked the first hitter, but settled down just fine after that, recording a strikeout and two groundball outs.
- Nice to see Hudson get a good inning of work in the eighth. Much needed.
- Kimbrel hit 99 on the gun in the ninth, but got a little too cocky and served up some tasty cheese to David Peralta, who banged a two-run shot off the Dodger closer.
- The double header at Dodger Stadium will be the first scheduled double header of its kind in LA Dodgers history.
