Steve Webb
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — I guess if you go to Denver and Minneapolis in April, you have to expect this kind of stuff. Sunday’s game in the Mile High City was beset by high winds that turned every fly ball into an adventure. Now, in the opening game against the Twins, the two teams were fighting off the threat of rain all night.
Before the rains finally washed the teams off the field in the middle of the eighth inning, though, Los Angeles jumped all over the Twins’ relief corps. They exploded for six runs in their half of the inning to break a 1-1 tie before the skies opened up and the game had to be shut down for nearly two hours. But when play was finally resumed, it wrapped up with a 7-2 Dodgers victory.
Fast-moving game early highlighted by solid starts
With the rain heading east off the Great Plains, both teams played like they were double parked, taking about an hour to get in the first half of this game. This was aided by a rather generous strike zone from home plate umpire Jerry Meals, but mostly from two efficient (and rather surprising) starts from two pitchers making their debuts with their respective teams: Andrew Heaney and Chris Archer.
Both pitchers have had quite a few miles on the odometer in the big leagues and both were signed to low-risk high, high-reward contracts during the off season. But both looked like Cy Young winners tonight. Archer gave up no runs on just two hits in his four innings of work, and Heaney was almost a touch better.
Who are you, Andrew Heaney?
The lefty reclamation project had been rocked all spring, so expectations for this start were limbo-bar low. But, apparently, he’d been tinkering around with a new breaking pitch in the pen while the team was in Colorado, and he decided to break it out tonight. And I’ll be damned if it didn’t work like a charm.
From his lead-off strikeout of hot-hitting Byron Buxton to his final hitter in the bottom of the fifth, Heaney and his fresh new pitches were, well, awesome. Swing and miss after swing and miss (seven in the first inning alone!), I could barely believe what I was witnessing. If not for a total gack from Trea Turner on a double-play ball in the bottom of the fifth, Heaney would have pitched five scoreless innings. Instead, he gives up only one earned run, and exited the game with score tied 1-1 (the Dodgers had scored one run in the top of the fifth on a Gavin Lux sac fly). All and all, it was a remarkable debut for Heaney. If we get even a hint of what Heaney showed tonight, we are going to be in very good shape indeed.
Dodgers explode in the eighth
The score remained knotted at one for the next few innings, but in the top of the eighth, the Dodger hitters woke up (with a little assist from the Twins pitching and defense). The frame started with back-to-back walks drawn by Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Then, Trea Turner made amends for his fielding error by smacking a run-scoring single through the left side of the infield. The tie had been broken, and the Boys in Blue were up 2-1.
But the Dodgers weren’t done, not by a long shot. After a walk to Max Muncy loaded up the bases, Justin Turner went oppo for another run-scoring single, making it 3-1. But the big blow of the inning was a two-run double off the bat of catcher Will Smith. Before the inning ended, the Dodgers had tacked on two more runs on a fielding error and a Gavin Lux RBI single.
Can we finish this game, puh-leeease?
After play resumed, things were understandably sloppy as a lot of reserves got into the game, and no pitcher seemed all that interested in throwing strikes. The Twins got a cheap run in the eighth. And then, the Dodgers walked the bases loaded in the ninth, but nothing came of it. Evan Phillips wrapped things up with a clean ninth.
Kershaw Day comes at last
The Dodgers wrap up their opening road trip tomorrow morning with an early game. Clayton Kershaw has been announced as the starter. We’ll see how Dave Roberts wants to play this one because of how late this one got done. First pitch is 11:10 PDT.
Cans of Corn…
- Wow. If this new slider has legs, I owe Andrew Heaney a big apology. Whatever voodoo Mark Prior did in Colorado, keep it up.
- Gavin Lux continues to be the best hitter in the Dodger lineup. Hitting from the nine hole, he went 2-for-4 with a sac fly and two RBI. I’ve written a “Gavin has arrived” piece last season, so I’m going to keep my powder dry from making any pronouncements this year.
- Cody Bellinger walked in the fifth, and then stole two bags en route to scoring on the Lux sacrifice. This kind of sparkplug Cody is a good kind of Cody.
- Brusdar Graterol had a big clutch moment when the game was on the line in the fifth. With a runner on third, he got Byron Buxton to pop out and Carlos Correa to ground out to end the threat and preserve the 1-1 tie. Nice work tonight from the Bazooka.
- Speaking of Correa, he heard it pretty good from the Dodgers fans who were on hand at this sparsely attended game.
- By the end of the night, there were maybe 200 hardy fans left in stands at Target Field. You could hardly blame locals for bugging out. Maybe they got home in time to see their T-wolves beat the Clippers in the playoff game.
