Dodgers Recap: Offense Hits Into Franchise Record Five Double Plays as Dodgers Drop Series Opener to Angels

LOS ANGELES— Happy Rivalry Weekend, the first such weekend by Major League Baseball, as the Los Angeles Dodgers await their Freeway rival, the Los Angeles Angels.

On the mound for the Dodgers would be righty Dustin May, who looked sharp in his last outing in Arizona, allowing two runs in 6.2 innings pitched, which ended in a loss, thanks to a masterful outing by Diamondbacks starter Corbin Burnes.

For May this season, you can tell what day he’ll have in the very first inning. He entered today’s game with an ERA of nine in the first inning. Today, he’d add to that number, allowing two runs to score on a two-run home run courtesy of Yoán Moncada.

It remained a 2-0 ballgame in favor of the Angels until the bottom of the third inning, when, with two outs, Hyeseong Kim slapped a base-hit single past the diving third baseman, the eighth straight plate appearance where Kim got on base.

Despite an Ohtani walk and runners at first and second, the Dodgers would yet again fail to capitalize on Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz.

Unlike the Dodgers’ offense early on, it wouldn’t take long for the Angels to score some more runs on Dustin May after the righty issued a single and back-to-back hit by pitches to load the bases with one out.

Zach Neto, the Angels’ best position player this season, would get the job done with a two-run double, pushing the Angels’ lead to four.

The Dodgers, looking to fight their way back, would start to chip away in the bottom of the fourth inning after a one-out single from Will Smith and a first-pitch RBI double from Max Muncy, giving the Dodgers their first run of the ballgame. But Kochanowicz would limit the damage to just one that inning.

Despite the hiccups in the first four innings of tonight’s game for Dustin May, he ended his night with a clean fifth inning and added another strikeout to his day.

Overall, that would do it for May. After throwing ninety-five pitches, he’d end his line at five innings pitched, allowing four runs on six hits while punching out eight Halos.

The Dodgers’ offense had no answers for Jack Kochanowicz and whatever traffic they did generate, FOUR double plays erased it, and the young righty was able to fire 6.2 strong innings of one-run ball for the Angels.

However, the Dodgers continued to try to claw their way back after Shohei Ohtani‘s massive solo home run, his sixteenth of the season and the ninth home run over his last thirteen games. But the eighth inning would end just as quickly with another inning-ending double play off the bat of Freddie Freeman.

It was just not the night for the bats to get anything going as they grounded into a franchise record five double plays, the first time they’ve done that since August of 2015.

Tomorrow, veteran Clayton Kershaw returns to try to even the weekend series against former Dodger Tyler Anderson. The first pitch is 7:10.

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