Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — The good teams find a way to win the tight ones. The bad teams don’t. And therein explains the outcome at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. For much of the game Tyler Anderson and Marlins lefty Jesus Luzardo were locked in a Battle Royale on the mound. After six scoreless innings from both pitchers, the Marlins and Dodgers traded single runs in the 7th with the Dodgers getting a clutch double from Trayce Thompson.
But it was a weird and wacky fielder’s choice off the bat of Will Smith in the 8th that provided the margin of the Dodgers’ victory. When the dust had cleared, it was a hard-fought 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins in this, the first meeting of these two squads in 2022.
Dodgers waste Betts double in first
After Tyler Anderson sent the Marlins down 1-2-3, the Dodgers’ half of the first inning couldn’t have started any better. On the very first pitch from Luzardo, Mookie Betts ripped a gapper to left center for a leadoff double. But there he stayed for the rest of the inning. The team almost caught a break on Trea Turner‘s opposite field bloop, but right fielder Brian Anderson made a sliding grab for the first out of the inning. A Freddie Freeman strikeout and a Will Smith fly to right, and that was that in the Dodgers’ first.
Dodgers waste two hits in the third
After Tyler Anderson pitched around some traffic in the top of the third, the Dodgers had another scoring opportunity in the bottom of that frame. With one out, Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts banged back-to-back singles through the infield. But once again, they couldn’t cash anything in. Trea Turner struck out, and Freddie Freeman was retired on a comebacker to Luzardo. Thus the Dodgers began the evening with an 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
Anderson and Luzardo battle through six
After the early opportunities, the game settled in to a good ol’ fashioned pitchers’ duel, with neither Tyler Anderson or Jesus Luzardo budging an inch. Anderson was borderline brilliant, giving up only three Marlin hits on 75 pitches in the first six innings. In the bottom of the sixth, Mookie Betts led off with a blast to left that came within a foot or two of a home run, but ended up dying on the track. Trea Turner then drew a walk, which of course ate up a lot of Luzardo’s attention during Freddie Freeman’s at-bat, much to the dismay of the increasingly restless Dodger crowd. But Freeman too flied out, leaving the inning up to Will Smith. Smith hit into a force out and Luzardo too had pitched a scoreless six.
Marlins break through in 7th
With his pitch count still looking good, Tyler Anderson came out for one last inning in the 7th. Catcher Jacob Stallings quickly made that look like a questionable idea when he banged a double over Mookie Betts’s head in right. However, when Anderson retired both Charles LeBlanc and Peyton Burdick, it looked like the Dodgers’ lefty might escape the inning unscathed.
When rookie right fielder Jerar Encarnacion came up with his .111 batting average, things were looking pretty good for Anderson. When TA got ahead of him 0-2, they looked even better. Then, Anderson made one of the few mistakes he made all game. He threw a changeup that was a little higher in the zone than he probably wanted. Encarnacion went down and got it and banged a gapper to left center for a run-scoring double. Anderson got out of the inning on the next hitter, but the damage had been done. Anderson left the game on the wrong side of a 1-0 score. Still, it was another great night for TA. His line for the game: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K.
A double from Trayce to tie it up!
With Anderson out of the game, the Dodgers’ offense had some work to do to at least take the guy off the hook after a great start. The Dodgers’ 7th started off promisingly enough with a Justin Turner single to center. However, it looked like he might be stranded there when the next two hitters were retired, the first by Luzardo and the second by reliever Steven Okert. That left the whole inning in Trayce Thompson’s hands.
Okert started Thompson off with two sliders that missed the zone. Now ahead in the count, Thompson could afford to be picky at the plate. Okert went back to the slider a third time, but this one just hung up in the middle of the zone just aching to be hit hard. Trayce was happy to oblige. He ripped a shot into the left field corner. Old man Turner came chugging around the bases to score all the way from first. And, on a bad throw, Thompson was able to take third. Tie ballgame!
Trayce was stranded at third when Gavin Lux struck out, but you could feel in the stadium that the tide had turned.
Miscue gives Dodgers the go-ahead run
After Chris Martin pitched a scoreless top of the 8th, the Dodgers got things going right away in their half of the inning. Former Dodger Dylan Floro came in to pitch with the top of the order coming up for the Dodgers. Mookie Betts watched a couple of Floro pitches land for strikes, but then he just waled on one. He drilled the ball into the right field corner for his third hit of the night. And Betts broke from the box thinking triple, and that is just what he got. The Dodgers now had three shots to get the man home, something they hadn’t been that great at so far that night.
Trea Turner had the first whack at it and hit a sharp ground ball to third. Then, Freddie Freeman was given an intentional pass to set up a potential inning-ending double play. Batting next, Will Smith hit a ground ball that wasn’t quite as hard as Turner’s, causing some miscommunication among the Marlins’ fielders. Third baseman Jon Berti wanted to come home to gun down the breaking Betts, but catcher Jacob Stallings was out of position, as if he was going to back up the play at first. With no one to throw it to, Berti had to eat the ball, and Mookie scored without a throw. It was the kind of play that you kind of expect to see from a 52-67 team. Whatever the reason, the run scored and the Dodgers were ahead 2-1 going into the 9th.
Phillips for the save (with a little help)
This time it was Evan Phillips, and not Craig Kimbrel who came out of the pen in the 9th to seal the deal. And for a hot minute, it looked like Dodgers Twitter might have a whole new thing to whine about on Saturday. Leadoff hitter Nick Fortes drilled a Phillips fastball to center, as hard as a ball has been hit against Phillips in a good long while. It sailed through the night sky and the Dodger faithful collectively held its breath until….
Trayce! Streaking back on the ball and making a couple of course corrections along the way, Thompson made a perfectly timed leap at the fence to rob Fortes of extra bases at the very least. Whew! And the crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief.
The rest of the inning was much more Phillips-like. A ground ball to short from Jacob Stallings and a harmless flyout to Thompson to end the game. Game over. Cue Randy Newman.
Cans of Corn…
- After a brief stay in the bigs, catcher Tony Wolters has been released by the team.
- Until that double in the 7th, Trayce Thompson’s reverse splits were still a thing. Going into the at-bat, he was hitting .192 versus left-handed pitching this season.
- Mookie was definitely the hitting star in this one, going 3-for-5 with two extra base hits.
- Chris Taylor continues to swing and miss. A lot.
- Seems like the play that scored the winning run was just bad fundamental baseball.
- Trayce Thompson’s play in center was maybe not quite Cody-esque, but it was up there.
