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By Jon Weisman
One locker separates the workstations of Trayce Thompson and Julio Urias in the Dodger clubhouse, which made for a funny scene when the hero of tonight’s game came by.
Category: Postgame (Page 7 of 21)
![Image-1[14]](http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/image-114.jpg)
By Jon Weisman
100 02x xxx -- 3 000 200 xxx -- 2 002 00x xxx -- 2 010 014 xxx -- 6
Above are the linescores against Mike Bolsinger in his four starts this year, and as you can see, he’s allowed one crooked number in each of them.
They’ve never been the same inning. One crooked number in the third inning (June 1), one in the fourth (May 24), one in the fifth (May 18) and one in the sixth (tonight).
Tonight brought the biggest crooked man of all, thanks to a three-run home run by Trevor Story in the sixth inning that doubled Colorado’s run total on its way to a 6-1 victory over the Dodgers.
As you can see, the crooks haven’t always broken in at the same point in the game, not always the same trip through the order. But come they have.
![Image-1[152]](http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/image-1152.jpg)
By Jon Weisman
For the first time this season, the Dodgers asked their bullpen to go three innings to protect a Clayton Kershaw lead — a 1-0 lead at that.
And the bullpen, which is back on one of its hot streaks during an eventful season, did the job.
Joe Blanton, Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen made Kershaw’s six shutout innings stand up, and the Dodgers scored late to finish with a 4-0 victory over Atlanta.
![Image-1[142]](http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/image-1142.jpg)
By Jon Weisman
Julio Urias pitched longer. He pitched more efficiently.
Early on, he was victimized by three soft hits, a debatable ball four and an error.
And then he gave up two home runs.
And then he gave up a home run.
Urias’ five innings against the National League-leading Chicago Cubs today, in what became a 7-2 loss by the Dodgers, probably weren’t something to cut out for the scrapbook. Six runs (five earned) on eight hits and a walk rarely are.
But they absolutely looked like a step forward from his 2 2/3 innings at New York in his MLB debut six days ago, and offered a more concrete vision of the potential the 19-year-old presents.
![Image-1[132]](http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/image-1132.jpg)
By Jon Weisman
In their past three games against each other, Elias Sports told us today, the Dodgers and Cubs became the first pair of teams in Major League history to play three consecutive games with a no-hitter or one-hitter:
There was Jake Arrieta’s no-hitter in the final meeting between the teams last year, plus back-to-back one hitters, one by each team, Monday and Tuesday.
Tonight, offense ran wild. Chicago exploded for three hits, while the Dodgers went bananas and got four. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, the team with fewer hits won.
Eighth-inning RBI heroes Howie Kendrick and Adrian Gonzalez.
By Jon Weisman
Jake Arrieta bent, and an inning later, the Cubs broke.
In his first start against the Dodgers since his August 30 no-hitter, Arrieta pitched seven more shutout innings. But he didn’t no-hit them (pop the champagne), and in fact, barely escaped the seventh inning after walking the bases loaded.
Once he was out of the game, the Dodgers struck, with a trio of singles from Chase Utley, Corey Seager and Adrian Gonzalez breaking a scoreless tie in the eighth — as well as ending 26 consecutive scoreless innings against Chicago dating back to last season — and propelling the Dodgers to a rain-delayed 5-0 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
The Dodgers not only answered the Cubs’ one-hitter Monday with one of their own (retiring the final 19 batters), they evened their record on their road trip against last year’s National League pennant finalists to 3-2, with two games to go. In those six games, Gonzalez (2 for 4) is 10 for 19 with two walks.
Howie Kendrick capped an eight-pitch at-bat with an opposite-field sacrifice fly for the Dodgers’ second run, and a three-run homer in the final inning by Corey Seager (3 for 5) — his team-leading ninth of the season — put the game all but out of reach.
While Arrieta came away with a no-decision, and in fact allowed only two more hits in this start against the Dodgers than he did in his last one, the loss nevertheless ended a 23-game Cubs winning streak in games their ace has started, which had tied a Major League record, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
![Image-1[94]](http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-194.jpg)
By Jon Weisman
A day before they face Jake Arrieta for the first time since he held the Dodgers hitless, the Dodgers were nearly held hitless.
Justin Turner’s sun-aided bloop single, which fell between three Cubs fielders in the top of the first inning, was the only hit by the Dodgers in a 2-0 Memorial Day loss at Chicago. Five pitchers combined to retired the final 25 Dodgers of the game.
In their past two games against the Cubs — Arrieta’s August 30 no-hitter and today — the Dodgers are 1 for 55 at the plate with two walks and 23 strikeouts.
Adrian Gonzalez’s walk after Turner’s single was the last Dodger baserunner. Alex Wood and three Dodger relievers pitched well enough to keep the Dodgers in the game, but not enough to overcome the Cubs’ pitching dominance.
![Image-1[78]](http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-178.jpg)
By Jon Weisman
Clayton Kershaw completed his extraordinary May with a triumphant finish, if you don’t mind a mildly disappointing footnote.
Kershaw raised his strikeout total since May 1 to 65 — a total not exceeded by a Dodger pitcher in a single calendar month since Sandy Koufax in 1965. For the fourth time in six May starts, Kershaw struck out at least 10 and walked none. He averaged 8.3 innings per game. He allowed 24 baserunners in 49 2/3 innings. His ERA for the month: 0.91.
The 28-year-old phenomenon also set an MLB record by striking out his 100th batter before walking his sixth — Cliff Lee had the record with seven walks for his first 100 strikeouts in 2010 — and currently has a 21.0 strikeout-walk ratio.
Kershaw just can’t boast about his second career 6-0 month. Leaving a game mid-inning for the first time this season, Kershaw settled — happily, one can bet– for a 4-2 Dodger victory, but only after Mets tied the game off reliever Adam Liberatore with two out in the bottom of the eighth.
Adrian Gonzalez’s two-run single in the top of the ninth, and Kenley Jansen’s three-up, three-down save in the bottom of the inning, gave the Dodgers and Kershaw the ending they were counting on.
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By Jon Weisman
In more than 100 years, no reliever had ever entered the ninth inning of a game against the Dodgers with a four-run lead, blown the lead and won the game.
But that’s what happened when the Mets’ Jeurys Familia gave up a bases-loaded walk to Yasmani Grandal and a three-run double to Chase Utley (the latest memorable moment for Utley) – then emerged the winning pitcher on Curtis Granderson’s home run off Pedro Baez, 6-5.
Via Baseball-Reference.com, the closest equivalent was September 27, 2011, when Arizona’s Micah Owings started the 10th inning of a 1-1 game against the Dodgers and allowed five runs before the Diamondbacks scored six in the bottom of the inning off Blake Hawksworth and Javy Guerra, capped by a Ryan Roberts grand slam.
By Jon Weisman
There are four other pitchers looking to prove that the Dodger starting rotation isn’t just Clayton Kershaw.
After last week’s seven-walk interruption, Scott Kazmir is back on the case.
Kazmir struck out 12 batters — his most since 2013 and one shy of his career high — in the Dodgers’ 3-1 victory over Cincinnati tonight, Los Angeles’ season-high fourth win in a row.
The 32-year-old just missed becoming the second Dodger lefty in the past five days to strike out 13 in six innings, after Alex Wood on May 21. He settled for the dandy dozen whiffs, on 91 pitches.
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Mike Bolsinger’s offspeed was on point tonight.
Working primarily with a curve and slider in the 80 mph-and-below range, Bolsinger pitched a solid 5 2/3 innings, and the Dodgers extended their winning streak to three with a 8-2 victory over Cincinnati.
In his second big-league start of the season, Bolsinger struck out six and allowed three hits, blemished only by a two-run home run by Adam Duvall that cleared Joc Pederson’s glove by inches.
By Jon Weisman
With the Dodger bullpen depleted, with the Dodger offense tired, Clayton Kershaw gave Los Angeles exactly what it needed.
Inning after inning of zeroes.
Despite a late rush, Kershaw’s streak of double-digit strikeouts ended tonight. But nothing else of his season-long dominance did, as he sliced through the Cincinnati Reds on 102 pitches for a 1-0 Dodger victory.
This was the first time in seven starts since April 15 that Kershaw didn’t whiff at least 10 batters. No matter. He has already tied his career high with his third shutout of the season.
Cincinnati basically had one window against Kershaw, and that came one second into the game. Zack Cozart hit the unceremonial first pitch down the left-field line for a double. Billy Hamilton bunted him to third, and Kershaw went 3-0 in the count to Joey Votto.
But two strikes later, Votto lined to short, and two more pitches later, Brandon Phillips grounded to third. For the rest of the game, the Reds would get one runner to second base, and one other runner to first base.
Yasiel Puig points back to the dugout after hitting a tiebreaking two-run single in the 17th inning. (Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
By Jon Weisman
The Dodgers won.
They won, 9-5, over San Diego, in 17 innings, despite the albatross of a bad week and a rough season hanging over them. They won, despite the specter of a third consecutive walkoff loss howling all around them.
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Yasiel Puig homers in the fifth inning. (Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
By Jon Weisman
Kenley Jansen had allowed one run in the first 42 games of the season. Then he allowed two runs with one swing.
In a game that was topsy, turvy and topsy again, Melvin Upton Jr.’s two-run homer off Jansen, after an odd, pop-fly single that second baseman Chase Utley couldn’t corral, gave the Padres a walkoff a 7-6 victory at San Diego over the Dodgers.
It was the first walkoff homer Jansen allowed in his seven-season MLB career.
Upton’s homer negated a two-out, two-run homer by Justin Turner in the eighth inning after Carl Crawford’s pinch-hit single that had rallied the Dodgers to a 6-5 lead.
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
Angels at Dodgers, 7:05 p.m.
Chase Utley, 2B
Justin Turner, 3B
Corey Seager, SS
Howie Kendrick, 1B
Joc Pederson, CF
Trayce Thompson, LF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Yasiel Puig, RF
Carl Crawford, DH
(Ross Stripling, P)
Chase Utley, 2B
Justin Turner, 3B
Corey Seager, SS
Howie Kendrick, 1B
Joc Pederson, CF
Trayce Thompson, LF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Yasiel Puig, RF
Carl Crawford, DH
(Ross Stripling, P)
By Jon Weisman
Mike Bolsinger will return to the minor leagues after making a spot start Wednesday for the Dodgers, with reliever Chin-hui Tsao joining the roster from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Tsao, who turns 35 in June, has a 3.31 ERA and 1.35 WHIP with 14 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings this season, and has been unscored upon in his past eight appearances.
Last year, returning to the Majors after an eight-year absence, Tsao pitched seven innings for the Dodgers, with a 2.84 ERA in his first four games before allowing six runs in two-third of an inning July 25 against the Mets. He also doubled in his only at-bat.
Making his first MLB start in nearly eight months and his first since recovering from a March oblique injury, Bolsinger went 4 1/3 innings and was charged with two earned runs in the Dodgers’ 8-1 loss to the Angels, allowing nine of the 21 batters he faced to reach base, while striking out two.
