Buehler bounces back in Dodger win

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers won Tuesday’s game with the Padres 2-1, but even if they had lost this one late, it wouldn’t have been the story. The absolute biggest story of the night was the fact that Walker Buehler found that Cy Young form that had been eluding him the last few starts, since the meltdown in San Francisco. This is huge if the team has an ace like Buehler back in the fold, as he is absolutely critical to the team’s postseason plans. He’ll probably get one last start on the weekend against Milwaukee, but everything we saw tonight from Buetane was very, very, good.

Dodgers score early, but strand many

Walker pitched a scoreless first, and then in the bottom of the inning, the Dodgers got right to work against the Padres’ starter, our old buddy Yu Darvish. Mookie Betts led off with a double, and one batter later, Trea Turner came through with a double of his own. Betts scored easily, and the Dodgers were off and running in this one.

Thanks to many Padres walks to go along with their six hits on the night, the Dodgers had all sorts of traffic on the bases on Tuesday. But, in a trend that has reared its head far too often this season, the Dodgers just couldn’t get the key hit to break the game open. In all the team was 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left thirteen men on base over the course of the game. Against playoff-level opponents, that kind of production will definitely come back to haunt them. They’d better clean that up, pronto.

Pollock RBI proves the difference

Because of their lack of clutching hitting in this one, the Dodgers would score their last night of the game in the early innings, getting a second run in the bottom of the third. It started off with, who else?, Trea Turner who hit yet another single to get aboard. In all Turner went 3-for-5 and was by far the Dodgers’ most productive hitter of the evening. Turner advanced to second on a one-out hot shot to third from Will Smith. Manny Machado made a near-miraculous stop on the ball and threw across the diamond on his knees to get Smith at first. It was the defensive play of the game, for sure, and perhaps saved a run.

However, the run wasn’t saved for long, as AJ Pollock came through with a two-out RBI to drive Turner home and put the Dodgers’ up 2-0. Though he struck out twice in this one, Pollock’s clutch hit here would turn out to be the difference in the ballgame.

Buehler cruises through seven innings

Dave Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior couldn’t have asked for a better start from Walker Buehler to start off this last home stand of the night. He was efficient with his pitches, had great command, and was spotting almost everything on the edges of the zone. He only got five strikeouts, but the Padres hitters looked outmanned in almost every at-bat.

His seven shutout innings mark his best start in over a month, and we’ll be hoping for more of this going forward. Joe Kelly and Blake Treinen finished up the game, and though Kelly plunked a guy and Treinen gave up a solo home run, both looked pretty sharp overall.

As for Buehler, he will probably get a tune-up start over the weekend, but this is more than likely the last time in the regular season that we will see him get deep into the game. For this night, anyway, he was brilliant. His final line for Tuesday: 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 5 K

Taking care of business, hoping for help

With their win tonight, your Los Angeles Dodgers go to 101-56. The Giants edged the D-backs in San Francisco by a score of 6-4, so there is no change in the standings after Game 157. The only thing the Dodgers can do is keep winning. They need to go into the playoffs smoking hot, no matter who they play, be it San Francisco or St. Louis. The Cards won their 17th straight game on Tuesday, and clinched that second Wild Card team spot.

So, the only things we know for sure right now on the NL side is the Cards will be the second Wild Card, and the Brewers are NL Central champs. Over in the East, the Braves beat the Phillies in their first of three on Tuesday, which puts the Fightin’ Phils in a 3.5 game hole. That little tea party is almost over, it seems. The only thing remaining is who will be the NL West champs and who will be hosting the Wild Card game next Wednesday. Stay tuned, Dodger fans!