Alex Wood took the mound tonight for the Dodgers (6-9) looking for his first win of the season as he faced Padres’ (7-11) starting pitcher Bryan Mitchell who has struggled with his command so far this season issuing 14 walks and only 3 strike outs in three games. The Dodgers looked to continue their impressive hitting and started things off early once again tonight.
Chris Taylor would lead things off with a ground ball single to center field. Corey Seager would bat next and hit a hard line drive to right field with an exit velocity of 112 MPH – almost identical to the one he hit last night that bounced off of Hunter Renfroe‘s glove. Tonight, however, Renfroe would judge it better and make the catch for the first out. Matt Kemp would come to the dish next and scorch an 0-1 breaking ball to center field for a two-run homer to give the Dodgers an early 2-0 lead. Kemp has now homered in back-to-back games and leads the Dodgers with 9 home runs at Petco Park.
Wood would begin the game by striking out the side in the bottom of the first and, with one out in the top of the second, Chase Utley would come to the plate. On a 2-0 pitch, Utley would be struck in the shoulder for his 200th career hit-by-pitch putting him at 8th all-time.
After failing to score in the top of the 4th with a lead-off triple by Cody Bellinger (that nearly missed leaving the park), Taylor would draw a one-out walk in the top of the 5th. Seager would then single on a hit-and-run advancing Taylor to third base. Kemp would come up next and score Taylor on a sac-fly to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.
Wood, who was spectacular through 5 innings, would surrender a lead-off double to Carlos Asuaje followed by a walk to pinch-hitter Matt Szczur. Jose Pirela would bat next and would be called out on a ground ball that bounced in front of the plate and hit him as he left the box. Next up was Freddy Galvis who hit a come-backer to Wood that looked like an inning-ending double play; however, Wood spun around and overthrew Seager at second allowing a run to score and cutting the lead to 3-1. That would end the night for Wood but, fortunately, no more damage would be done as Tony Cingrani and JT Chargois would strike out the next two batters to end the inning. Wood would finish the night tossing 5.1 innings of 2-hit, 1-run ball (0 ER) allowing only 1 walk and striking out 7.
Pedro Baez would come in relief with two outs in the bottom of the 7th and strike out Asuaje to end the inning. He would then strike out the side in the 8th inning for a perfect outing. In the bottom of the 9th, Kenley Jansen would enter the game looking to close things out. Unfortunately, he would struggle yet again, allowing a lead-off solo home run to Eric Hosmer cutting the lead 3-2. He would strike out Renfroe for the first out and would get Christian Villanueva out on a deep fly ball to center field that was caught by a leaping Chris Taylor for the second out. Looking like he might get out of the inning, Jansen would then surrender a walk to Franchy Cordero who would steal second and advance to third on a balk. One strike away from ending the game, Jansen would surrender a double to Chase Headley that would score Cordero and tie the game 3-3. Jansen would get pinch-hitter Austin Hedges to strike out to end the inning and send the game to extras for the fourth time this year but the damage was done. Jansen has now allowed 3 home runs in 7 outings and is 2 for 4 in save opportunities.
After failing to score in the top of the frame, despite a one-out double by Kiké Hernández, Ross Stripling would load the bases in the bottom of the 10th – all of which came on walks (one intentional). With one-out, Stripling would get Renfroe to strike out followed by a strike out to Villanueva (who swung at a nasty breaking ball that would have been ball four) to get out of the jam.
Seager lead off the inning facing relief pitcher Tyler Webb and would get things started with a ground ball single to right field. Hernández would draw a walk but would be out at second on a ground ball hit by Bellinger who hustled down the line to break up the double play. That would bring up the red-hot Yasmani Grandal who roped a double down the left-field line scoring both Seager and Bellinger to put the Dodgers back on top 5-3.
Two batters later, Utley would be intentionally walked which would bring Kyle Farmer to the dish. Farmer, who was having a tough night at the plate, would follow in Grandal’s footsteps and hit an almost identical line drive down the left-field line scoring both Grandal and Utley to increase the lead 7-3.
Josh Fields would take the mound looking to close things out for the Dodgers in the bottom of the 12th. He would strike out Spangenberg for the first out and get Pirela to line out on a diving catch by Yasiel Puig. Two batters later, Fields would strike out Hosmer to, finally, end the game. It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win.
The Dodgers (7-9) have now won three consecutive games as well as their first series this season. Despite the blown save by Jansen in the 9th, the Dodgers battled back and were able to get hits when they counted The Boys In Blue will look for the sweep tomorrow night as Kenta Maeda faces Luis Perdomo beginning at 7:10pm PST.
BakoBoyInBlue
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