Mike McGinnis/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
In one sense, Julio Urías was all over the place, walking more batters tonight than in his previous five starts combined.
In another sense, that crazy brushwork simply provided color to another painterly performance by the teenage artist.
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By Jon Weisman
Shortly after high noon at Pittsburgh, the clock looked like it was going to strike an early midnight for Los Angeles.
The Pirates took a 4-0 lead in the first inning of today’s afternoon special, and the dark side of history had the drop. The Dodgers would need a big rally to avoid their first four-game sweep by the Pirates since 1944 (when it happened twice — in July and August). They were also trying to end an eight-game losing streak at PNC Park.
The last Dodger pitcher to win there was Hyun-Jin Ryu, who hasn’t appeared in an MLB game in more than 21 months.
But whatever flag the Dodgers will hoist this year, it won’t be white. With a run in the third inning and four in the fifth, the Dodgers bucked the Bucs, rallying for a 212-minute, 5-4 victory that was their 23rd comeback win of the season.
Justin Berl/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
Ever so rarely, Clayton Kershaw will be less than perfect, and the baseball world will scramble its jets to understand why.
Almost without fail, the why is beside the point. The essential answer is that nobody is always perfect. Not even Kershaw.
In the second inning tonight, the Pirates ambushed the likely National League All-Star starter, scoring every run that it needed in a 4-3 victory, Pittsburgh’s eighth straight home win against the Dodgers.
Kershaw has lost two of those games, allowing four runs on nine hits with two walks in each. In only one other game in the past 12 months has Kershaw allowed at least four runs.
Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
Despite 13 hits — including four by Corey Seager and a single and homer by Yasiel Puig — the Dodgers couldn’t quite complete one of their recent rallies, falling tonight to the Pirates, 8-6. Los Angeles has lost six straight games since July 2014 at Pittsburgh, allowing 50 runs in the process.
Seager is 14 for his past 25 with two walks, five doubles and a homer, for a .560 batting average, .593 on-base percentage and .880 slugging percentage. Puig is 5 for 11 since returning from the disabled list, including the home run, which went 439 feet.
In his Dodger debut, Nick Tepesch gave up five runs on four singles, two doubles and a home run over four innings. The Dodgers’ six-game winning streak came to an end, despite twice coming within a run of the Pirates after trailing 4-0 in the second inning.
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By Jon Weisman
So, you’re about to hit publish on a story that says the Dodgers’ eighth-inning magic has disappeared. And then, at the last moment, you look up — and in comes the magic, nearly past deadline but better late than never for Los Angeles.
With the Dodgers trailing by a run and two outs remaining, pinch-hitter Howie Kendrick reached first on a single. Yasiel Puig came up and lined a single to left field that — absolutely stunningly — went past Washington center fielder Michael Taylor, for a two-run Little League home run that gave the Dodgers a 4-3 victory over the Nationals.
Technically, it was a single plus a three-base error — plus that irresistible dash of Puig — that extended the Dodgers’ winning streak to six games.
It’s the fourth time the Dodgers have come from behind in the eighth inning or later during the streak. And it was the fourth completely bizarre play to take place at Dodger Stadium tonight.
Washington had taken the lead an inning earlier — but first, some context.
In the top of the eighth Tuesday, in pursuit of the Nationals’ third run of the game, catcher Wilson Ramos was thrown out at home by the Dodger left fielder.
In the top of the eighth inning tonight, in pursuit of the Nationals’ third run of the game, Ramos made it much easier on himself, launching a 421-foot homer over the Dodger left fielder and taking his time to circle the bases.
That shot broke a 2-2 tie that had lingered since the third inning and put the Dodgers in jeopardy, until Kendrick and Puig turned things around with the help of Taylor, whose night was a complete nightmare. In the top of the ninth, Taylor became the sixth player ever to earn a platinum sombrero against the Dodgers by striking out five times in a game.
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By Jon Weisman
If nothing else, it’s been a tough week to be cynical about the Dodgers.
Two days removed from his walkoff walk, Yasmani Grandal hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, rallying the Dodgers to a 3-2 victory over National League East-leading Washington.
In the Dodgers’ five-game winning streak, this was the fourth time the Dodgers had come from behind, and the third time in the eighth inning.
Save #162. #WeLoveLA pic.twitter.com/uDOwlxW1Gl
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 21, 2016
By Jon Weisman
With a grounder by Anthony Rendon to Justin Turner and a throw to first, Kenley Jansen closed out the Dodgers 4-1 victory over Washington tonight and set the Dodgers’ all-time saves record with the 162nd of his career.
Jansen broke the tie he had forged with Eric Gagne on June 15. It was also Jansen’s 20th save of the season, making him the first Dodger to have five such seasons.
Eric Gagné calls @kenleyjansen74 to congratulate him on breaking his franchise record. #WeLoveLA pic.twitter.com/qijE2vkeUn
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 21, 2016
As was the case for his first career save on July 25, 2010, Jansen sealed a victory for Clayton Kershaw, who pitched six shutout innings before allowing his only run in the seventh inning.
Despite pitching in unKershawly heat, the Dodger lefty’s ERA dipped from 1.58 to 1.57, but more dramatically, he fanned eight (including Bryce Harper thrice) while walking none, improving his dominant strikeout/walk ratio to 144/7, or 20.1 to you and me.
Emergency starter Yusmeiro Petit pitched admirably for Washington, going six innings on 90 minutes notice, but was victimized by four extra-base hits, including a pair of homers (by Justin Turner and Joc Pederson) and a pair of doubles (by Corey Seager and Corey Seager).
For Turner, it was his seventh homer of June (since June 7, in fact), giving him the team lead for the month over Seager. The last Dodger …
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Kiké Hernández’s father, you might have heard by now, is battling cancer. For Hernandez to hit a home run, on Father’s Day, is pretty much all the story anyone would need on this day.
The fact that Hernández’s home run, the first of his career as a pinch-hitter, stopped a shutout and tied the game for the Dodgers in the bottom off the eighth inning, well, that’s just a gift for the rest of us.
“I don’t think I have any words to describe it,” Hernández told AM 570’s David Vassegh after the game. “I still have a little bit of goose bumps from it, and it was a little bit hard not to cry running the bases. I woke up this morning, and I was thinking about the same thing: I probably won’t start, but if I get a pinch-hit at-bat, it’s kind of like a movie. … I’m sure my dad loves every bit of it.”
Hernández’s homer set the stage for another pinch-hit RBI, Yasmani Grandal’s bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth, to give the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over Milwaukee.
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By Jon Weisman
Justin Turner’s weekend of heroics continued.
Turner’s third home run in two nights brought the Dodgers’ roaring back from a 5-2 deficit in the third inning, putting them on their way to a 10-6 victory over Milwaukee.
The biggest of the 14 Dodger hits that also included homers by Howie Kendrick and Joc Pederson, Turner’s blast — his sixth homer in his past 12 starts — marked the halfway point in the Dodgers’ six-run inning, their biggest of 2016. And it salvaged a night in which starting pitcher Mike Bolsinger couldn’t make it out of the third inning.
Roberts said @MBolsinger had cramping during his outing. Labored through 2.2 IP.
— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) June 19, 2016
In fact, Bolsinger and Milwaukee’s Chase Anderson, childhood friends who were best men at each other’s weddings, each threw exactly 29 balls and 44 strikes in 2 1/3 innings tonight. Anderson took the loss, while Chris Hatcher, who threw 2 1/3 shutout innings, was the Dodgers’ winning pitcher.
Hatcher, who made his MLB debut as a catcher in 2010 but went 0 for 6, also picked up his first career hit, an RBI single in the third.
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![Image-1[53]](https://mlblogsdodgers.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/image-153.jpg)
By Jon Weisman
You’ve got Clayton Kershaw on the mound. You just want that big hit.
With two out in the sixth inning, 10 Dodgers had reached base, but that critical blow remained but a dream.
Then, Scott Van Slyke made Dodger wishes come true, following singles by Adrian Gonzalez and Howie Kendrick with a 405-foot, three-run homer to left to give the Dodgers their first lead. Kershaw made it stand up for his 7 1/3 innings and 11 strikeouts, and Joe Blanton and Kenley Jansen closed the doors and windows for a 3-2 Dodger victory at Arizona.
For Jansen, it was his 161st career save, tying the Dodger franchise record set by Eric Gagne. Jansen’s first career save was July 25, 2010, to protect a win for … Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw struck out at least 10 and walked no more than one, for the ninth time this season. Curt Schilling holds the MLB record with 13 such games in 2002.
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By Jon Weisman
After stoking more fears about the offense with four no-hit innings to start the game, the Dodgers traded that quartet for four home runs — two by Joc Pederson — ending their three-game losing streak with a 7-4 win at Arizona.
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By Jon Weisman
Zack Greinke didn’t exactly dominate the Dodgers, least of all Corey Seager, who had a single, walk and career-best 440-foot home run off his former teammate.
But Greinke was one run better than Mike Bolsinger, who gave up two solo homers of his own — and then a tiebreaking score in a fifth inning that began with a Greinke single. That meant in the Dodgers’ sixth consecutive one-run game, they lost for the third straight time, 3-2.
By Jon Weisman
The growth of Julio Urías is so apparent, his progress so steady, that it almost makes the struggles of the Dodger offense not seem so agonizing.
By Jon Weisman
Yep. Uh-huh. Yeah.
You figured Clayton Kershaw would pitch well at San Francisco. He did. You figured the Dodger offense would struggle at San Francisco. It did.
But how would it end?
Thanks to Justin Turner’s heroics, happily for the Dodgers.
Turner’s ninth-inning home run off Santiago Castilla — the Dodgers’ first hit since the first inning — made a winner of Kershaw and Los Angeles over Johnny Cueto and the Giants, 3-2.
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By Jon Weisman
Preferring the idea of having Julio Urias face San Francisco’s lineup over Arizona’s, the Dodgers have flipped him with Mike Bolsinger so that the teenage lefty pitches Sunday against the Giants, while Bolsinger will go Monday against the Diamondbacks.
Dave Roberts announced the switch Wednesday after the Dodgers’ 1-0 loss to Colorado, according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. Urias will be pitching on four days’ rest.
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
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