Wood, Bullpen Battered by A’s

The Los Angeles Dodgers (4-6) took on the Oakland A’s (4-8) for the second and final game of the short interleague series at Dodger Stadium.  Seeking their first series win of the season, the Dodgers turned to Alex Wood who was looking for the first win of his own.  Wood began last season with a franchise-best 11-0 record and did not lose a game until July 21st.  Unfortunately, the Oakland batters would not be too kind to the lefty tonight.

1st Inning

After striking out the first batter, Wood would face Mark Canha and would fail to cover first base in time, giving him an infield single. Two batters later, clean up hitter, Khris Davis, launched a two-run home run to put the Athletics on the board early, 2-0.

In the bottom half of the inning, A’s starting pitcher, Daniel “the mustache” Mengden, would take the mound with his quirky, three step wind-up.  With one out, Joc Pederson hit a towering fly ball to right-field that was able to drop due to either bad lighting or miscommunication between Trayce Thompson and Stephen Piscotty allowing Joc to reach second base.  A passed ball would advance Pederson to third and he would come in to score off a ground ball out by Corey Seager cutting the lead 2-1.

4th Inning

Wood would get out of the second and third unscathed but, in the 4th, things would get ugly.  Khris Davis lead off the inning with a double and would come in to score from a single up the middle by Matt Chapman.  Next up would be Jonathan Lucroy who would reach on a bad “fielder’s choice” by Chase Utley resulting in both runners being safe.  “Mustache Mengden” would come to the plate next and pour salt on the wound with a single up the middle to score Chapman, making it 4-1.  And, to add insult to injury, Marcus Semian would hit a two-run double down the left field line to make it 6-1, ending the night for Alex Wood.  JT Chargois would come in relief and finish the inning but not after giving up another run off an RBI single by Matt Olson to make it 7-1.

The Dodgers would show a breath of life in the bottom half of the frame with a one-out solo shot by Yasmani Grandal – his team-leading second home run of the season.  Unfortunately, nothing else would come of the inning.

6th Inning

Scott Alexander would take the mound in the top of the 6th but would struggle just as bad if not worse than Wood, issuing a lead-off walk followed by back-to-back singles to Matt Olson and Jed Lowrie that would make it 8-2.  Alexander would then throw a wild pitch that would score Olson increasing the lead 9-2.

In the bottom of the inning the Dodgers would, once again, show life with Matt Kemp leading off the inning with a double followed by a line drive from Cody Bellinger that would ricochet off the glove of first baseman, Matt Olson.  Yusmeiro Petit would come in relief but would surrender a base hit to Grandal that would score Kemp and cut the lead down to 9-3.  Two batters later, Logan Forsythe would ground out allowing Bellinger to score, making it 9-4.  Yasiel Puig would enter the game as a pinch hitter and would hit a deep fly ball to center that he, himself thought was gone; however, former Dodger Trayce Thompson would channel his inner, big-brother “Klay Thompson” and make a spectacular leap to rob Puig of a two-run home run.

7th Inning

The 7th wouldn’t fare any better as Josh Fields would take the mound and immediately surrender a lead off double to Lucroy who would score two batters later off a base hit by Semian and make it 10-4.

8th Inning

The rout continued as the Athletics tee’d off of Wilmer Font that began with a Jed Lowrie single and a two-run homer by Matt Chapman putting the damage at 12-4.

The Dodgers, once again, showed some traces of life in the bottom of the 8th with a single by Kemp, a double by Grandal and a sac-fly by Utley that would make it 12-5.

9th Inning

Just when you thought this game couldn’t get any worse, it did.  Font would stay in the game because, at this point, why not?  Unfortunately, his ERA would only rise further as he issued a single to Thompson (his first in an Oakland uniform), a single to Matt Joyce, a ground out by Semian that would score a run, a single by Olson and a three-run homer by Jed Lowrie…

But wait, there’s more! Just for good measure, Kiké Hernandez lead off the bottom of the 9th with a solo home run, his first of the season.  When it was all said and done, the Dodgers would finally finish the very forgetful game with a 16-6 loss – their worst loss since September 2014.

Though the Dodgers pitching was downright ugly tonight (16 runs on 21 hits), the silver lining is that the offense showed life.  The Boys in Blue are hitting the ball and hard.  In fact, the Dodgers began the game with the highest number of line drives in the MLB despite having one of the lowest batting averages. Simply put, the hard-hit balls are not finding as many holes as they should. As soon as the offense and the pitching start clicking simultaneously, the Dodgers should be able to string together some wins.  The Dodgers (4-7) will receive tomorrow off and will host the Arizona Diamondbacks (9-3) on Friday night at 7:10pm PST at Dodger Stadium.

BakoBoyInBlue