Hello,
The Dodgers ended their three game series with the Giants by winning on Sunday 4-1. LA won 2 of 3 games and now have won 4 straight series. Thanks to the Dodgers recent run, they've surged to second place in the NL West. (Thanks to ESPN.com).
The big hit in Sunday's game was A.J. Ellis 2 run double in the top of the 9th inning. Going into the 9th inning the game was tied 1-1 and Giants closer Sergio Romo was pitching. (Of the Romos in sports, this Romo usually plays well under pressure.) Before Sunday's game Romo had 20 saves and only had 3 blown saves this season. His ERA wasn't amazing, but he's been a clutch pitcher.
Starting off the Dodgers rally, who else?, was Yasiel Puig. He had a single and seems to be the Dodger most responsible for when LA scores runs recently. Adrian Gonzalez then had an infield hit, Puig advanced to third base on an error. At this point Puig is on third and Gonzalez is on first and there's still no outs. Up next is Hanley Ramirez, the only Dodger hotter than Puig, but he grounded to the pitcher. Gonzalez was able to advance to second base on this play. Dodgers are on 2nd and 3rd base and there's one out.
For some reason Bruce Bochy decided to intentionally walk the cold Andre Ethier, a decision probably based on percentages or questionable logic. Now the bases are loaded with Juan Uribe coming to the plate. In two similar situations on Friday, Uribe delivered both times. However he was unable to deliver this time as Uribe struck out swinging. Bases are still loaded but now there are two outs. Still pitching is Sergio Romo, a player who helped the Giants win the World Series last season. If Romo gets the out here the game is still tied at 1 and the game goes into the bottom of the 9th. Hitting in the bottom of the 9th is World Series hero Marco Scutaro, Pablo Sandoval and the excellent Buster Posey. If one of those get on base Hunter Pence would bat 4th in the inning.
The Giants are playing shallow to have a better shot at getting a player going home. However A.J. Ellis was able to hit Romo's slider over everybody's head to deep left-center field and Puig, Gonzalez and Ethier scored. At that points the Dodgers lead 4-1, which was all the scoring LA would do in the game.
Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen came into the game to try and shut down the heart of the Giants lineup. He was able to quickly get Scutaro and Sandoval out, although Posey had a single. Jansen was able to strike out Pence and the Dodgers won 4-1. (Thanks to ESPN's play by play for this game for the specific details.)
The Dodgers had risen all the way to 25th in MLB for runs scored. However after only scoring 6 runs in their last two games, LA has slipped back to 27th in MLB for runs scored. LA's payroll is about 9 times more than Houston's yet the Astros have scored 4 more runs than LA.
Individual performances of note, Clayton Kershaw had another solid start. In 8 innings he only gave up 3 hits and 1 run. Kershaw improves to 8-5 as his ERA decreases to 1.89. Puig was 2 for 4 and is hitting .409. He no longer leads the Dodgers in batting average as Ramirez was also 2 for 4. Ramirez is hitting .410 and has an 18 game hitting streak. Ramirez also doubled and tripled. Adrian Gonzalez was 1 for 4, including that big 9th inning hit. Gonzalez continues his season long flirtation with hitting .300, he's at .296.
File under players that may be rushing back: Matt Kemp was held out of the game, it looks like he'll be playing Monday. Carl Crawford was 0 for 4 as his batting average continues to drop precipitously, he's hitting .284. These two players have both been injury prone the last couple of seasons and I hope they aren't voluntarily or forced by LA to come back early. Both of these players should only be playing once they are near full health. I realize in a long season that no player is probably ever fully healthy.
LA's recent surge has lifted them to 42-45 and they have a 15.9% chance of reaching the playoffs. The Dodgers are all alone in second place in the NL West, although they're still 4.5 games behind the Diamondbacks. LA will have a chance to make up some ground over the next 3 games as they travel to Arizona to take on those same Diamondbacks.
Tonight's scheduled pitching matchup is up and down Zack Greinke (6-2, 4.30) vs. Randall Delgado (1-2, 3.67 ERA). It's time for the $21,000,000 man to step up and hopefully he won't be instigating any more brawls. On Tuesday Ricky Nolasco (5-8, 3.85) will make his Dodgers debut. In the final game of this crucial 3 game series the scheduled Dodgers pitcher is Hyun-Jin Ryu (7-3, 2.82). If the Dodgers could win two of three, obviously that would be big.
themusicaddict
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