Dodgers come from behind, then throw it away in extras

SAN FRANCISCO — All year, we’ve been saying the same thing: this Dodger team has got to clean up its defense if it wants to make a deep run in October. On Friday night, fans got an early taste of just how critical that would be. In an epic nail-biter with the Giants that went eleven innings, an errant throw from Trea Turner proved to be the difference. It pulled first baseman Will Smith off the bag just enough to allow Buster Posey to reach first safely, and more importantly allowed Brandon Belt to score the winning run from third base. The final score in the opening game of this three-game set: 3-2 San Francisco.

Bullpen pushed to the limit, comes up big

You couldn’t have asked for anything more from the Dodgers’ bullpen on Friday night. After David Price was a late scratch for an injury, it turned out to be a true bullpen game from the get-go for the staff. And almost every time the bullpen gate opened, a Dodger reliever delivered, though not without some drama.

Starting with Corey Knebel, the Dodgers used nine pitchers to get through the first nine innings of the ball game. In total, they scattered seven hits and eight walks, but they always seemed to come up with big pitches when they needed them, only allowing one earned run to score.

Giants get one in the third

That run came in the bottom of the third when usually reliable Phil Bickford loaded up the bases with nobody out with two walks and a single. After a strikeout, Bickford was lifted for Alex Vesia. Vesia got pinch hitter Austin Slater into an 0-2 count, but would give him a little too much to hit on the next pitch, surrendering a run-scoring single to put the Giants up 1-0. However, it could have been a lot worse, as Vesia managed to pitch out of the jam without any further damage.

And so seemed to be the case most of the night. The Giants would get baserunners, but in the end, the Dodger pitchers would squirm off the hook. Justin Bruihl, Blake Treinen, and Joe Kelly all had clean outings, but everyone else was pitching around traffic on the bases. Still, the pen bent, but it did not break, and the Dodgers were in the ballgame until the very end.

Dodgers hitters quiet against DeSclafani

Meanwhile, the Dodgers seemed to have forgotten to pack their bats on the trip up north. Though they were facing Anthony DeSclafani, a pitcher who’d they’d pummeled all season, they couldn’t get anything going all night against the Giants’ righty. DeSclafani went six scoreless innings and only gave up two Dodger hits along the way. And the Dodgers’ bullpen was equally up to the task, shutting the Dodgers down in the seventh and eighth innings as well.

CT3 ties it in the ninth

Finally, in the top of the ninth, the Dodgers broke through. With one out in the inning, Justin Turner ripped a ground ball through the infield for a single. He then moved to third base on a Corey Seager double, and the Dodgers had a nice little threat going in the final frame of regulation.

The next play was just weird. Will Smith hit a ground ball to the right side, and second baseman Thairo Estrada came home with the throw. Justin Turner was running on contact, but got caught up between home and third. After a brief rundown, Turner retreated to the third base bag. Trouble was that the third base bag was now occupied by Corey Seager. Catcher Buster Posey tagged them both, but it was Seager who was called out on the play. (Consult your rule book for further explanation)

Anyway, with runners at the corners and two out, the struggling Chris Taylor came to the plate. And though he got jammed pretty good by pitcher Jake Magee, CT3 was able to muscle the ball into shallow center for a big-time RBI single. The game was tied 1-1, setting up an epic finish.

Jansen can’t find the plate but escapes

Kenley Jansen came on to pitch the ninth. No doubt the closer’s July meltdowns against the Giants were still lingering in the minds of many Dodger fans, and perhaps even Jansen himself. Jansen just didn’t have any command this evening. Pitching ball after ball after ball, he quickly walked the first two of the first three hitters he faced, putting himself in a self-imposed jam. But somehow, some way, Jansen was able to work around the free passes and got the next two Giants to hit balls right into the defense. Alex Dickerson flied out to left, and Buster Posey grounded to short, and we were on to extras.

Trading runs in the tenth

Both teams were able to push their designated runner across in the tenth inning. The Dodgers got their run when runner Albert Pujols was able to chug to third on a deep fly ball to center. With one out now, Tio Albert was lifted for pinch runner Walker Buehler. It proved to be the right move, as Buehler was able to score easily on Trea Turner’s sacrifice fly to center. But that was all the Dodgers could muster in their half, and so the game when to the bottom of the tenth with the boys in blue clinging to a 2-1.

The Dodgers’ lead in this game last about as long as their lead in the division. The Giants’ leadoff hitter in the next inning, Brandon Crawford, greeted new Dodger pitcher Andrew Vasquez with an RBI single and he took second on the late throw to the plate. But Vasquez, making his first big league appearance in a couple of years, buckled down after that and pitched great. He got a groundout and a strikeout before handing the ball to Dave Roberts, who called for Evan Phillips, the last Dodger pitcher in the empty bullpen. Phillips battled pinch-hitter Curt Casali for nine pitches, but finally won the fight, sending him back to the dugout with a strikeout and ending the Giants’ tenth inning with no further damage.

Eleventh inning disappointments

The Dodgers went scoreless in their half of the eleventh, despite getting a lead-off single from Corey Seager that sent runner Justin Turner to third. Will Smith hit another ground ball that turned into a tag play on Justin Turner at home for the first out. The contact play with a runner at third worked a total of zero times in this game, but by all means let’s keep doing it. With Turner retired, pitcher Jarlin Garcia got two straight strikeouts to send the game into the bottom of the inning still tied.

In the eleventh it was the Dodgers’ walks and sloppy D that would be their undoing. With Mike Yastrzemski starting on second, Evan Phillips got a quick strikeout from Darin Ruf for the first out of the inning. Roberts then called for the intentional pass to Brandon Belt, so he could get a righty-righty matchup with Kris Bryant. Phillips got ahead of Bryant 1-2, but eventually lost him on a walk. The Giants had now loaded up the basis without the benefit of putting a single ball in play.

Posey’s grounder ends in disaster

Alex Dickerson hit next, and smacked a sharp groundball to Corey Seager’s left. Seager made a nice play on the ball and went home for a force out on Yastrzemski. Now with two down, longtime Dodger nemesis Buster Posey came to the plate, working on a 0-for-4 night. Phillips got ahead of Posey 1-2, and then got the Giants catcher to hit a fairly routine ground ball to the right side.

Trea Turner moved to his left to field the ball, and did so cleanly. He had plenty of time to make the throw to first. But the first baseman was not Max Muncy, or Albert Pujols, or even Cody Bellinger. Instead, it was catcher Will Smith who was forced into emergency service at the position despite never having played there before even once in his professional career.

Still a good throw would have gotten the slow running Posey easily. Instead, Turner’s throw went toward the infield side of the bag and pulled Smith’s foot from the base. Smith caught the ball, but flailed around searching for the bag with his back foot. He finally found it, but just a second too late. After review, it was confirmed that Posey had crossed first base just before Smith’s foot found the bag. He was safe, Brandon Belt had scored from third, and the game was over.

Back at it on Saturday night

With the loss, the Dodgers fall back into the familiar position of second place in the NL West. However, they have to be feeling pretty good about the rest of the weekend with Julio Urias starting on Saturday and Walker Buehler pitching on Sunday. It would have been nice to win this first one, but the way the pitching fell for the weekend, Dodger fans can’t be too upset with this loss. Still, it would be nice to get some actual hits before the late innings. See what you can do about that boys, mmmmkay?