Category Archives: Games

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Machado Homers Twice; Sparks Dodgers’ Offense

Manny Machado led the Dodgers’ offense with two home runs as part of a five-homer 11-1 cakewalk victory over the Mariners on Friday night. Matt Kemp, Yasmani Grandal, and Max Muncy each hit home runs, giving the Dodgers a big enough lead that the bullpen couldn’t blow it if they tried.

Grandal got the Dodgers started in the third inning with a solo home run. He was batting from the right side (his weaker side) against the left-handed Wade LeBlanc. But the side of the plate didn’t matter when LeBlanc left a cutter right in Grandal’s wheelhouse. Grandal turned on the ball and hit it into the Mariners’ bullpen for a home run.

In the fourth inning, Machado was able to show Dodger fans that he actually is heating up. He whacked a curveball into the Dodgers’ bullpen in left field, giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. As he circled the bases, the cameras showed Muncy clapping with a mischevious look on his face.

It didn’t take long to see what Muncy was plotting. The Dodgers got a runner on base just in time for Muncy to come to the plate. With two strikes, Muncy ripped a hanging curveball into the right-field stands for a two-run homer.

In the fifth inning, the Dodger found themselves with runners on first and second and one out. So what did they do? Well, if this was the last homestand, they would have left the runners on base. But instead, Cody Bellinger hit an RBI single to center field. After a pitching change, the Dodgers were handed a run on a catching error by Mariners’ right-fielder, Mitch Haniger. The Dodgers then picked up a third run on a sacrifice fly by Kiké Hernández. When the dust settled in the fifth inning, the Dodgers had a 7-1 lead.

Machado finally gave us what we expected to see when the Dodgers traded for him: a multi-homer game. This time, Machado hit a 3-0 slider over the head of Denard Span in center field for a home run. This gave the Dodgers a comfortable 9-1 lead.

And finally, Kemp hit his homer. If you haven’t noticed, Kemp has been slumping badly. But on Friday night, he was able to put aside his struggles at the Mariners’ expense. With Bellinger on first base, Kemp hit a slider over the center field wall, for his 18th homer of the year. It was also the Dodgers’ fifth homer of the game.

Up Next:

The Dodgers will try to continue scoring runs against the Mariners in game two of the three-game series. Rich Hill will take the mound for the Dodgers against Mariners’ starter Erasmo Ramírez. In eleven career appearances (four starts) against the M’s, Hill has a 4-0 record with a 1.35 ERA. None of these appearances have been with the Dodgers. Ramírez owns an 0-2 record with a 6.75 ERA this year.

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Dozier Ends Dodgers Losing Streak In 12th

With the game tied at three in the twelveth inning, Brian Dozier hit a walk-off sacrifice fly off Giants’ reliever, Casey Kelly, snapping the Dodgers’ five-game losing streak with a 4-3 win at Dodger Stadium. The win brought the Dodgers into a tie with the Colorado Rockies for second place in the NL West.

With runners on the corners and no outs, Dozier decided to play for his team, not himself. He lifted a curveball into center field. With Yasmani Grandal on third base, a fly ball was good enough. Grandal tagged up and scored the winning run. As the Dodgers mobbed Dozier in the infield, Dodgers fans had something to cheer about for the first time in five days.

“Last I checked, the majority of winning streaks always come after a loss, right?” Dozier said. “That’s the thing with baseball, it flips just like that. Hopefully, we can reel off a few in a row.”

The Dodgers and Giants were forced to play extra innings when Caleb Furguson blew a 3-0 lead in the top of the eighth inning. With one out and runners on first and second, Furguson hung a curveball to Andrew McCutchen, who made him pay. McCutchen hit a home run just over the center field wall, tying the game.

The Dodgers struck first in the sixth inning when Yasiel Puig scored on a Joc Pederson sacrifice fly. The Dodgers then extended their lead with two runs in the seventh inning. Justin Turner led off the seventh with a walk. He then scored on a Manny Machado double, extending the lead to 2-0. Matt Kemp followed Machado’s double with an RBI single of his own, giving the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

Although hitting and poor pitching headlined the second half of the game, Hyun-Jin Ryu should not be overlooked. In his return from the DL, Ryu pitched six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and no walks with six strikeouts.

The Dodgers’ radio broadcast commented that Ryu looked like he’d not even spent time on the DL. As the stats show, he was sharp. But the stats still can’t show just how sharp he was. He was locating his fastball extremely well, and he had a great feel for his curveball.

Up Next:

The Dodgers have a travel day today before they open a three-game series in Seattle. Pantone 294 will be there for at least one of the games to make Safeco field feel like Dodger Stadium. Walker Buehler will take the mound for the Dodgers. He will be opposed by Wade LeBlanc. In his last start, Buehler tossed seven scoreless innings against the Rockies in a no-decision. The game will start at 7:10 pm.

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Dodgers Cold Bats Extend Losing Streak To 5

Over the weekend, while the Dodger bullpen was busy blowing games, we forgot that the bats haven’t been helping either recently. Since the series against the Houston Astros, the Dodgers have scored more than four runs only once. They’ve scored two or fewer runs in six of the eleven games. Even worse, they’ve lost seven one-run games in this stretch. Unfortunately, the Dodgers were unable to re-write the narrative on Tuesday night.

Alen Hanson came up clutch for the Giants, with two key singles with runners in scoring position, driving in both their runs, sending the Dodgers to a 2-1 loss in game two of the series against San Francisco. The Dodgers didn’t do themselves any favors, going just 1-7 with runners in scoring position.

Alex Wood gave the Dodgers a great chance to win, pitching five innings of one-run ball, allowing three hits and one walk with six strikeouts in his return from the DL. Unfortunately, Andrew Suárez out-pitched Wood, with six shutout innings and just two hits allowed.

But the Dodgers still had plenty of chances against Suárez. He allowed only two hits, but he walked three batters. That’s three free baserunners. But even with the free gifts, the Dodgers were unable to score.

Strangely enough, the Dodgers managed to score one run against the best bullpen in the NL West. With Justin Turner on second base, Manny Machado decided it was time to pick up his sixth RBI as a Dodger. He attacked a first-pitch fastball from Sam Dyson and hit an RBI single. This tied the game at one.

Because the Dodgers’ bullpen is shaky and the rotation is overflowing, the Dodgers sent Kenta Maeda to the mound in the ninth inning. Maeda entered the game and gave up back-to-back singles, before recording two outs. Once again, the Dodgers needed only one more out.

Once again, they couldn’t get it. Hanson hit a single into center field. Kiké Hernández picked up the ball and threw as hard as he possibly could. The throw was just a little too high. It was, however, still reachable for Yasmani Grandal. But in his haste to catch the ball and tag the runner, Grandal forgot the secure the ball in his glove.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers did what they have become infamous for: leaving runners in scoring position. With two outs in the ninth, Cody Bellinger stole second base. This meant that the tying run was in scoring position. But Max Muncy got too excited and swung at some pitches outside the zone, striking out and sending the Dodgers to their fifth straight loss.

Rivalry Renewed In LA

It wouldn’t be a Dodgers-Giants series without a benches-clearing brawl. Once again, Yasiel Puig was in the middle of it. After fouling off a pitch he should have hit, Puig showed obvious signs of frustration, something he does often. This upset Giants’ catcher, Nick Hundley.

According to Puig, Hundley told him to get back in the box, then when Puig got in his face, he told him to get out of his face. Puig further said that Hundley, “said some words to me in English that I really can’t repeat. That’s why I was upset.”

Puig and Hundley were both ejected following the brawl.

Next Game:

The Dodgers will try to end their losing streak at 7:10 on Wednesday against the Giants. Hyun-Jin Ryu will make his return from the DL for the Dodgers against Derek Holland. Before hitting the DL on May 3, Ryu owned a 3-0 record with a 2.12 ERA.

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Machado’s First Dodger Homer Backs Hill’s Strong Start

Manny Machado hit his first home run as a Dodger in the sixth inning and Rich Hill shut down the Braves for seven innings as the Dodgers beat Atlanta 8-2. Hill, who has grown an impressive beard, has begun to look like the pitcher the Dodgers need. Last night, he pitched seven innings, allowing just three hits and one walk with eight strikeouts.

Hill was dominant against the Braves. He kept opposing hitters off balance by throwing his two pitches from different arm angles and making his curveball break in different directions. His good game even went beyond the mound this time. At the plate, Hill finally figured out how to use a bat, hitting an RBI single, and eventually scoring a run. He picked up his first RBI of the year and his eleventh career RBI.

Now its time to talk about the Dodgers bats. The Dodgers took advantage of a Braves throwing error in the fifth inning to score two runs. The inning was highlighted by Alex Verdugo‘s RBI single. Verdugo struggled when he made his debut last September. In fifteen games, he only managed to collect four hits. This year, he has 13 hits in 13 games.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for: Manny Machado’s first Dodger home run. We knew it would only be a matter of time before he hit it. So here’s what happened. Machado came to the plate to lead off the sixth inning. He like the first pitch he saw, so he hit it into the seats in left-center field. There was no doubt about the homer.

The Dodgers continued to score runs with RBI singles and doubles, going 4-11 with runners in scoring position to earn the win. The only mistake the Dodgers made was when Daniel Hudson gave up a two-run home run against Ronald Acuña Jr. in the eighth inning.

Game two of the series will feature a battle between Clayton Kershaw and Mike Foltynewicz at 4:10pm. In his career against the Braves, Kershaw has a 3-0 record with a 1.47 ERA. He pitched well in his last start, but he didn’t have the support of his defense, causing him to take the loss.

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Kiké Pitches The 16th After Bats Go Cold; It Doesn’t Go Well

You read that correctly. With the game on the line and only starting pitchers still available to pitch the 16th inning, Dave Roberts sent utility-man, Kiké Hernández to the mound. So how did it go? Well, Hernández now owns an 81.00 ERA to go along with his 0-1 record. With one out in the bottom of the 16th inning, Trevor Plouffe blasted a walk-off three-run homer to send the Phillies to a 7-4 win over the Dodgers.

The game started with a bang. Chris Taylor took advantage of some early defensive miscues by the Phillies to score on a wild pitch in the first inning. Yasmani Grandal then added to the lead with a solo home run, his first of two in the game, in the fifth inning. Joc Pederson also drove in a run, with an RBI double in the fifth inning. Grandal hit his second home of the game in the top of the sixth, off reliever Adam Morgan.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers bats went cold after this point. From the seventh inning through the 16th, only seven Dodgers reached base. None of them scored. Manny Machado went 0-6, going hitless for the first time since coming to the Dodgers. Max Muncy went 0-7, and worst off all, Hernández had just about the worst day of his baseball career. In addition to giving up a walk-off home run, he also went 0-7 at the plate.

Kenta Maeda had a rough night as well. When the seventh inning began, he had a 4-1 lead to work with. By the time the inning ended, the Phillies had tied the game at four. Maikel Franco hit an RBI double, followed by a game-tying two-run homer by Jorge Alfaro.

Kiké Hernández was thrilled when he was told he would pitch the 16th inning. He had always dreamed of being allowed to pitch in the Major Leagues. But his dream quickly turned into a nightmare. After he recorded the first out, Hernández walked two batters, then gave up the home run to Plouffe. It was a long night for Hernández, but as he said, its just hours before another game.

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Let’s Get Max Muncy To The All-Star Game

The rosters for the 2018 MLB All-Star Game were announced today. Last year, the Dodgers had five players representing them on the NL roster. This year, the Dodgers have two: Matt Kemp and Kenley Jansen. Last year, Dodger fans rallied to get Justin Turner on the roster via the final vote. This year, Max Muncy needs your help to make the roster. You can vote for him here.

Muncy has been the most surprising impact player the Dodgers have had this year. He’s only played in 66 games, but he has a .270 batting average with 20 home runs and 38 runs batted in. He’s been impressing everyone with his power and glove. Muncy, however, is going up against some tough competition, so he needs your help. It’s really easy to vote. Just go to https://www.mlb.com/all-star/final-vote and pick Muncy for the National League and pick someone else for the American League.

If you don’t believe me that Muncy deserves to be an All-Star, take a look at this:

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