Oops

Phil Gurnee ♦ April 21, 2017 ♦ 3 Comments

Dodgers went into the game tonight with two interesting stats. Alex Wood had not allowed a hit to a left-handed hitter in twenty-six at-bats dating back to last year. David Peralta was the second left-hand hitter he faced and he gave up a single but it was innocuous. The real damage came in the 5th with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Wood gave up a single to Jake Lamb that plated two runs and gave the Dbacks a 4 – 3 lead.  Of course, Lamb hits everyone in April.

Coming into the game the Dodger bullpen was ranked number one in baseball. They gave up nine runs and blew a 5 – 4 lead.  Three relief pitchers shared in the grief with Romo taking the brunt of the damage. That didn’t even include the Houdini act by Baez in the 5th when he walked the first two hitters and a passed ball put runners at 2nd / 3rd with no outs. Luckily for him, the worst hitter in baseball was up in Jeff Mathis and he blew him away but it wasn’t easy. He also struck out the best pinch-hitter in April in Hazelbaker leaving Pollock as the man standing between him and the dugout. Pollock had homered, singled, and doubled but Baez got him out. That was the last good thing the Dodger bullpen did.

The game did have highlights:

• Cory Seager got three hits including a bomb. Someone in the infield can still hit a home run.
• Chris Taylor blasted a pinch-hit home run to left field providing the Dodgers with a brief 5 – 4 lead, and gave Orel and Joe a chance to wax poetic about how much Turner Ward and Dave Roberts love his new swing. They love the swing so much they sent him to AAA to start the year and soon enough he’ll be there again.
• Joc Pederson looked good out of the leadoff role
• Andrew Toles made a nice play in LF taking a fly ball right off the top of the wall, and then came back and got a clutch single to tie the game at 4 in the 6th.