CHAVEZ RAVINE — No trashcans were necessary in this one. The visiting Houston Astros* absolutely teed off on starter Ben Casparius, and things just went from bad to worse after that. Not much to cheer about in this Independence Day game as the Dodgers dropped the series opener to the illegitimate 2017 World Series champs by a score of 18 to 1. Yes, you read that score correctly. Perhaps, in honor of the 4th of July, the Dodgers were trying to re-enact the Siege of Charleston of 1780, the worst defeat of the colonies in the American Revolution. Whatever they were doing, it wasn’t playing good baseball.
The first inning could have gone a little better for starter Casparius, to be quite honest. A first pitch homer from Isaac Paredes started things off on the wrong foot. Then, before the inning was over, Jose Altuve (boo!) doubled to center, and Christian Walker (him again?) drove in another run with a single to right. Before they hit the bat rack, the Dodgers were chasing two runs.
2017 holdover Lance McCullers Jr. started for the Astros* and though he gave up a leadoff walk to Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the first, he was quickly erased when Mookie Betts hit into a around-the-horn double play to snuff out the threat from the top of the Dodgers lineup. A Freddie Freeman strikeout ended a very quiet first inning against McCullers and his 6.48 ERA.
Things looked a lot better in the second when Will Smith led off the inning with his 12th home run of the year to cut the lead in half. He got a cutter that just didn’t cut and banged it over the left centerfield wall.
Unfortunately, more bad news awaited Casparius in the third. After giving up a leadoff double to Jake Meyers, Casparius threw a curve ball to THAT MAN AGAIN and Altuve smashed a home run into the left field pavilion. No bueno. And then, more bad news. A double and ANOTHER home run, this one from our old buddy from Arizona Christian Walker. Suddenly, it was 6-1 and the game wasn’t even an hour old. Is that Miguel Rojas warming up in the Dodger bullpen? (Okay, not quite yet)
You know how you know it’s not your night? When Shohei rips a ball up the middle that BOUNCES OFF THE PITCHER’S FOOT and directly into the glove of the shortstop for the rare 1-6 lineout to start off the bottom of the third. Ugh. However, in that same inning, the Dodgers got a little something going when Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners for Will Smith. Smith walked to load up and the bases and things started to look a little less bleak. However, Teoscar Hernandez grounded out, and the Dodgers went into the middle innings still down by five.
Casparius was done after three not-so-great innings. After a great start to the season, Ben seems to have lost his way a little bit. His line for the night: 3.0 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 0 BB, 3 K. No bueno. This brings Casparius ERA to 5.68 over his last 15 appearances. Not trending in the right direction for one of the Dodgers’ most promising young pitchers. Needs a reset something bad.
Jack Dreyer took over, tasked with at least keeping it close while the Dodgers could mount a comeback. Well, at least he picked off Jose Altuve to end a threat in the fourth. But then in the fifth, he got robbed of a clean inning by a Teoscar Hernandez misplay in right (sound familiar?) that turned into a double and Cooper Hummel cashed it in with a two-out hit to make it 7-1 in favor of the bad guys.
Noah Davis came in after Dreyer, and perhaps the less said about that, the better. Suffice to say that Astros* put up TEN runs in the sixth, thanks in part to a grand slam from catcher Victor Caratini and a three-run jack from Jose Altuve (I know. I know!) It was the most runs given up by the Dodgers in one inning since 1999, in the infamous two-grand-slams-in-one inning trick by Fernando Tatis (père) off Chan Ho Park. Before the inning was over, I was hearing chants of “START THE FIREWORKS! START THE FIREWORKS!” from the crowd.
It was going to be a long final three innings. When all was said and done, the Astros* had racked up 18 runs on 20 hits, and if it hadn’t been for the fireworks show, the stadium would have been empty by 7:30. Yeesh.
Well, the good news in this one, I suppose, was that everybody tuning in at home could turn off the TV pretty quickly and enjoy the rest of their holiday with their friends and family. God Bless America.
On to the next one. Shohei on the mound (for two innings at least). He’ll be up against probably the second best starter for Houston, Framber Valdez. Would have been nice to get this first one. Oh, well.
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Flush this one. Back at it on Fox on Saturday. 4:15 first pitch.
