April 30, 2017

Hyun-Jin Ryu picked up his first win of the season, and Andrew Toles hit a 3-run homer, as the Dodgers defeated the Phillies 5-3 on Sunday afternoon at the Ravine.  The win completed a 3-game sweep over Philadelphia.

Ryu (1-4) pitched 5 1/3rd innings, giving up just 1 run on 3 hits, while striking out 9 Phillies.  He walked 3, and lowered his ERA to 4.05, after a rough start to the season.  Ryu threw 93 pitches before being pulled with 1 out in the 6th.  Sergio Romo came in at that point, and he would strike out the next two batters to end the inning.

Luis Avilan and Pedro Baez each threw scoreless innings, and the Dodgers gave the ball to Grant Dayton in the 9th.  Dayton gave up a 2-out, 2-run homer to Odubel Herrera, but Kenley Jansen came in after that to earn his 7th save by striking out Cesar Hernandez.

The Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning on an RBI single by Freddy Galvis, which scored  Hernandez.  Hernandez opened up the game with a triple, after Yasiel Puig had deep fly ball pop out of this glove.  After Galvis run-scoring single,  Daniel Nava walked to put two on with no outs, but Ryu struck out Maikel Franco, then got Aaron Altherr to fly out.  The final out of the inning came when Michael Saunders struck out.  Ryu cruised through the next four innings, needing only 56 pitches, after throwing 24 in the 1st.  He allowed just 1 hit over that stretch.

Justin Turner extended his hit streak to 16 games with an RBI single in the 1st inning, which tied the game 1-1.  One inning later, Chris Taylor hit a solo homer to left center giving the Dodgers the lead.  The Dodgers would maintain that lead until the 6th, when Toles extended the lead to 5-1 with his 3-run bomb.

Nick Pivetta (0-1) took the loss for the Phillies.  He allowed two runs and nine hits in five innings of work in his major league debut.

Turner and Yasmani Grandal had three hits apiece.  Turner raised his batting average to .404 on the season.

The Dodgers continue their homestand on Monday night, when they open a 3-game series with the San Francisco Giants.   The first game of the series will feature Clayton Kershaw (4-1; 2.29 ERA) on the mound for the Dodgers, while Johnny Cueto (3-1; 5.10 ERA) will get the ball for the Giants.

April 29, 2017

The Dodgers went wild in the 9th inning against the Phillies on Saturday night at Chavez Ravine.  LA hit back-to-back-to-back homers in a 4-run comeback to defeat Philadelphia 6-5 in walk-off fashion.

The Dodgers trailed 5-2 heading into the bottom of the 9th inning.  Yasiel Puig led off with a solo blast to left center field.  The next batter was Cody Bellinger, who crushed his 2nd homer of the game, this one off the right field foul pole, and suddenly it was 5-4.

That’s when skipper Dave Roberts sent Justin Turner to the plate as a pinch-hitter.  Two pitches later, Turner went deep to left field, tying the game at 5-5.  The homer also extended the Dodger 3rd baseman’s hit streak to 15 consecutive games.

“You always want to get the tying run to the plate, so that’s why I put Turner in and he responded,” Roberts said.

There was still nobody out in the inning after that.  After Chris Taylor struck out, Austin Barnes singled to center.  That promted the Nationals to replace Joely Rodriguez with reliever Hector Neris.  Neris got Andrew Toles to fly out to left, but Corey Seager singled to left after that, so the Dodgers had runners at 1st and 2nd with 2 outs.

Adrian Gonzales then came to the plate and drilled a ball that bounced off of 3rd baseman Maikel Franco’s glove, and rolled into left field.  That scored Barnes with the winning run from 2nd base.

“It had that topspin on the second hop and that makes it really tough for infielders,” Gonzales said.

The improbable victory moved the Dodgers one game over .500 at 13-12.  It was also the first time the Dodgers hit 3 straight home runs since August 18, 2012.

Grant Dayton (1-0) pitched a scoreless 9th inning for the win.  Brandon McCarthy got the start for LA.   He went 5 innings, giving up 4 runs on 8 hits, while striking out 3 an walking 1.  He threw 86 pitches, but did not factor in the decision thanks to the 9th inning rally.

Neris (0-1) took the loss.  Zach Eflin started for Philly and pitched well.  He went 7 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, and striking out 4.

The Dodgers will go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon at the Ravine.  Hyun-Jin Ryu (0-4; 4.64 ERA) will be on the mound for LA, while the Phillies will start rookie Nick Pivetta, making his major-league debut.

April 28, 2017

Kenta Maeda put together his best start in a while for the Dodgers, pitching 7 strong innings on Friday night, as the Dodgers beat the Phillies at the Ravine.

Maeda (2-2) had not gone past the 6th inning in any of this previous four starts this season.  However, he struck out a season-high eight and limited Philadelphia to five hits, a walk and two runs as Los Angeles snapped the Phillies’ six-game winning streak.

“It was a great day for me,” Maeda said through a translator. “I’ve had a string of bad outings and I felt the pressure going into the game. I knew I had to pitch well or something could happen. We have a lot of great pitchers.”

The only two runs of the game Maeda allowed came on a 3rd inning 2-run double from Freddy Galvez.  That extended his hit streak to 10 straight games.  The Dodgers tied the game at 2-2 after a wild pitch that scored Andrew Toles in the 3rd inning, followed by a Kike Hernandez RBI double in the 4th.

A Yasmani Grandal sacrifice fly in the 5th, and then a Justin Turner RBI double in the 6th extended the lead to 5-2.  Turner extended his career-long hitting streak to 14 games — the longest active hitting streak in the majors — with a first-inning single.  He had 3 hits on the night.

Jerad Eickhoff (0-2) took the loss, and gave up nine hits and five runs.  The Phillies managed to get a run on a sacrifice fly in the 8th inning off the Dodgers bullpen but they wouldn’t get any closer.

Kenley Jansen struck out the side in the 9th inning for his 6th save of the season.

The Dodgers learned after the game that they might be getting 3 injures players back next week: 2nd baseman Logan Forsythe, center fielder Joc Pederson, and left fielder Franklin Gutierrez.  Outfielder Andre Ethier won’t be back until June at the earliest.

The Dodgers and Phillies will be back at it tomorrow night at the Ravine.  Brandon McCarthy (3-0; 2.25 ERA) will get the start for LA, and the Phillies will send Zach Eflin (0-0; 1.50 ERA) to the hill.