Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — This one stings a little bit. In a very winnable game, the Dodgers simply got out-homered by the Yankees on Saturday, dropping the middle game of a three-game set by a score of 6-3. All of the Yanks’ runs came via the long ball, two off starter Michael Grove, and a couple more off the bullpen.
Offensively, it was just tough to solve Yankee ace Gerrit Cole. The righty exited the game after just six innings of one-run ball, and the Dodgers immediately pounced. Trailing 5-1 at that time, the Dodgers finally got rolling in the seventh inning, thanks in large part to the bottom of the order, especially Miguel Vargas‘s run-scoring triple.
After putting two runs on the board and two men on with nobody out, the Dodgers were eager for more, but ran into a lot of bad luck. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back screaming liners right at the Yankees’ infielders and then Will Smith struck out to end the frame with no further damage. Then, in the next inning J.D. Martinez got absolutely robbed of a potentially run-scoring double by Aaron Judge, who made a ridiculous catch in right in which he quite literally ran through a wall to make the grab. Things like that happen, maybe it’s just not your day. The Dodgers got a runner on in the 9th, but couldn’t push anything across, and Randy Newman had to keep quiet for the day.
Other than the two dingers, Michael Grove had a magnificent outing. His command was spectacular through most of the game, and got a lot of swing and miss on pitches that the Yankees’ hitters just couldn’t time up. The one guy who seemed to have his number was not Aaron Judge, not Giancarlo Stanton, not Anthony Rizzo or former MVP Josh Donaldson. Nope, it was journeyman Jake Bauers, who was only in the lineup at all due to an injury to Harrison Bader. Bauers took Grove deep not once, but twice in this one and accounted for all the runs off the Dodgers’ starter. Other than those two big flies, Grove surrendered only two other hits while striking out seven and walking nobody. It was a very encouraging return to a rotation that is still in a state of flux.
“Overall, really good,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts of his young righty’s performance. “Thought the fastball command, velocity — really good. The secondaries were really good.”
But the two mistakes to Bauers were the difference in the ballgame, a fact not lost on Grove. “It feels worse in a loss, for sure,” he said. “I made a lot of really good pitches and made some bad pitches that I got punished for. Plenty to learn from and plenty to be happy about as well, I guess.”
With Julio Urias nearing a return to active duty, suddenly the Dodgers are facing a situation where they have more starters than spots in the rotation. Kershaw and Gonsolin are locks, of course. Urias will be back soon. Dustin May is a ways off. So that leaves two rotation spots open and Grove, Noah Syndergaard, and flamethrower Bobby Miller available to fill them.
“That conversation is gonna happen,” Roberts said of the looming logjam on the mound. “Once we get to that point, we’ll have to make some decisions.”
In the meantime, Bobby Miller takes to the hill on Sunday Night Baseball to try to get the series win and keep the Dodgers in first place, increasingly hard to do with the pesky D-backs nipping at their heels. The Yankees will throw Domingo German at the Boys in Blue on Sunday.
