Steve Webb
MIAMI, FL — Ugh. Is there some kind of Bermuda triangle weird vortex at work in South Florida this weekend? Dustin May pitched great, but for the second straight game, the Dodgers’ infield defense let them down at a critical moment. And against a rolling Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins, that was all that was needed to provide the margin of victory. The Dodgers threatened late, but in the end, Alcántara made the Marlins’ two runs hold up in a 2-1 victory to knot the series at a game apiece.
Mookie breaks through with another jack
After Alcántara and Dustin May traded zeroes for two innings, the Dodgers got out to an early lead in the top of the third. It was obvious from the get-go that Cy Young candidate Alcántara was a much different pitcher from the one the Dodgers had taken to the woodshed back in LA. He was throwing a lot more breaking stuff, and but for a Justin Turner double in the second, the Dodgers weren’t seeing it very well the first time through the lineup.
That all changed with one swing of the bat from You-know-who. Continuing his torrid pace in this series, Mookie Betts bashed a center-cut slider from Alcántara to deep left centerfield. It just cleared the fence and bounced back into the field of play, but it was a goner, and the Dodgers were up 1-0. In the month of August, Mookie is hitting .320 with an OPS of 1.017. The home run was his 30th of the year, putting him on track to easily surpass his career high of 32, set during his 2018 MVP year with the Red Sox.
Stolen base leads to run off May
On the other side of the scorecard, Dustin May was no slouch himself. He threw three scoreless innings before the Marlins dinged him for the first earned run of his 2022. In the bottom of the 4th, Jon Berti got a one-out single for the first Marlin hit of the night.
Knowing that runs would be at a premium in this one, Berti promptly stole second during Brian Anderson‘s at-bat to get into scoring position. And score he would a couple of pitches later when Anderson hit what looked to be a sure double into right field. But Joey Gallo made a good catch and throw on the ball and made it a close play at second base. 2B umpire DJ Reyburn, though, called Anderson out for coming off the bag, and then ejected Anderson for arguing the call. Still, the Anderson knock had tied up the contest at one run apiece. And with Alcántara starting to find his happy place on the mound, it was now anybody’s ballgame.
Marlins take the lead in an ugly 6th inning
With the scored now tied, May and Alcantara battled through a scoreless fifth. And then, the sixth inning came. And it too should have been a scoreless frame for Dustin May. Things started off swimmingly. May retired Jacob Stallings on a comebacker, and induce a harmless flyball from Peyton Burdick. There were two out, nobody on. It looked to be yet another stress-free inning for Code Red.
And then the wheels came off the apple cart. And some of it was May’s own doing. First, May got what looked to be another easy ground ball to the mound from Joey Wendle for the third out. But May charged the grounder and got caught between hops; the ball scooted under his glove and his infielders had no play. This botched play was ruled a “hit.” It was not.
Then, even worse, May got another weak grounder toward the mound from Jon Berti which also could have ended the inning. It did not. Second baseman Chris Taylor couldn’t come up with the ball cleanly and it was ruled another “hit.” So now the Dodgers were in a real mess. Runners on first and second with two out. And here’s where the Brian Anderson ejection came into play. Batting in Anderson’s spot was Jerar Encarnacion, who had had a big double when the two teams played in LA.
Well, he came through again in this one, banging a single through the hole on left side of the infield. Joey Wendle came streaking around third and tried to score. Joey Gallo, who has had good moments in the outfield for the Dodgers, did not in this case. His throw home was pretty terrible (the only charged error of the inning), and Wendle scored easily to make it 2-1 Marlins. May would get out of the inning with no further damage, but his night was over. He could only sit on the bench to think about what might have been if the Dodgers hadn’t gifted the Marlins two free baserunners. Still, May continued to impress in this one. His final line for the night: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K.
Alcántara shines, but Dodgers mount a rally
The rest of the game was about Sandy Alcántara. Looking like a man completely in command on the mound. Alcántara retired the Dodgers quickly and efficiently in the 7th and the 8th. And with his pitch count under control, he came out in the top of the 9th to go for his fourth complete game of the year.
But the Dodgers’ still had a little fight left in them. After a Trea Turner strikeout opened the inning, Freddie Freeman got another “hit” in the scorebook that looked a whole lot like an error on first baseman Lewin Diaz. But the Miami official scorer was in a giving mood on Saturday, so whatever. Still, the tying run was on and the heart of the Dodgers order was coming to the plate.
Will Smith moved the tying run into scoring position by ripping a solid single off Alcántara into left field. Then, after a Max Muncy flyout, Justin Turner worked a walk to load up the bases with two outs. That left it up to Joey Gallo.
Gallo stepped into the batter’s box, no doubt eager to get a hit to add to his impressive start with the Dodgers. He fouled off a low change-up for strike one and then just barely got out of the way of a ball up and in that nearly hit him. Then Alcántara went back to the low change-up, but Gallo was able to put a good swing on this one. Gallo ripped a ball to the right side with an exit velo of 100 mph. But rookie first baseman Lewin Diaz snagged the ball on a slick piece of fielding and tossed to Alcántara for the game-ending out. The Dodgers had pushed Alcántara to his limit, but in the end the Marlins’ ace got the better of them Final score: Marlins 2, Dodgers 1.
Early start on Peacock for Game 3
After this not-so fun game, the Dodgers will have to lick their wounds in a hurry as they have an early one on Sunday. The game will begin at 9:00 am PDT with a pitching match-up of Julio Urias against righty Edward Cabrera, who has just 14 major league appearances under his belt over the last two seasons. Still Cabrera has pitched well so far in 2022, and has a nice 1.41 ERA over 38 innings of work. But I imagine that the Dodgers are going to want to make somebody pay for their tossing away this very winnable game, and who better to do that than Edward Cabrera?
Cans of Corn…
- Hard to argue against Alcántara for Cy Young after that start. His ERA is now 2.13.
- Pitching and defense wins championships, kids. We all know that.
- Mookie now has his third 30-homer season of his career. And he’s got a month and a half of ballgames to go. It doesn’t seem so crazy to imagine him getting to 40.
- Such a hard-luck loss for May. And, the official scorer gave him an extra earned run on his ledger for this year. Thanks a lot, pal.
- Clayton Kershaw is still looking at an activation on Thursday in NYC or perhaps Friday back home.
- This one finished in two hours and 17 minutes. Welcome to 1964!
