FSM Essential Recap: Dodgers vs. Astros - Series 16

FSM Essential Recap: Dodgers vs. Astros – Series 16

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Los Angeles Dodgers (30-19)  |  Houston Astros (27-22)

“Baseball is like driving, it’s the one who gets home safely that counts.”

– Tommy Lasorda

Game 2:

The Dodgers fell to the Astros 5-2 in a game filled with errant throws and long balls snapping Los Angeles‘ eight-game winning streak.

Trevor Bauer took the loss — his first in 10 starts against Houston — allowing only two solo home runs in his six innings. But that Bauer didn’t last longer was partially due to walking a season-high four for the third time in five May starts. Three of those walks came in the first inning, when Bauer threw 37 pitches, helping his odometer get to 100 through six innings.

Luis García, the Astros rookie starter, also needed 100 pitches to get through six, also thanks to an inning that simply got away from him. He needed 39 pitches to get through the third inning, a rally that was aided by a two-out error by García to extend things.

Max Muncy singled home one run, but the Dodgers, like the Astros in the first, left the bases loaded, unable to add to the carnage.

The run was the 108th scored this season by the Dodgers with two outs, most in the majors.

Nate Jones was the first call out of the bullpen, down a run — what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts calls a “minus game,” and a day before the Dodgers are planning a bullpen game — but his second outing with the Dodgers wasn’t as productive as his first.

After the wildness from Bauer, the throws that were wild in the seventh inning came from Dodgers fielders. First by Gavin Lux, who rushed a throw with catcher Martin Maldonado running, causing it to sail into the dugout. Then with Maldonado trying to score from second on a single to right field, Mookie Betts made a poor throw home that with any accuracy would have nailed Maldonado. Instead, a short hop eluded Will Smith and the Astros widened their lead to 3-1.

But before the Dodgers could even stew over the poor defense that cost them a run, Aledmys Díaz jumped on a first-pitch two-seamer from Jones, lining it into the Crawford Boxes for a two-run shot, making it all moot.

Game 2 Boxscore:

WP: Luis García (3-3 / 2.93 ERA))

LP: Trevor Bauer (5-3 / 2.07 ERA)

SV: Bryan Abreu (1)

HR: Sheldon Neuse (3); Jose Altuve (6), Carlos Correa (7), Aledmys Díaz (2)

The Dodgers start a four-game series against the Giants on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. The first pitch is slated for 7:10 and can be seen on SportsNet LA or MLB Network in out of town markets. It’s a bullpen game for the Dodgers while the Giants starter is TBD as of this article.

Game 1:

Clayton Kershaw back home in Houston. There has been a history that hasn’t been the best and pisses off Dodger Nation. But since last October, many a redemption was secured, but that four-year-old wound still stings the Dodgers and the fan base, and rightfully so.

Nothing can ever change the outcome of the 2017 World Series, nor can a single regular-season start truly avenge all the wrongs. But that doesn’t make Kershaw’s performance on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park any less sweet. The future Hall of Famer pitched his longest outing of the season in the Dodgers’ in a 9-2 win over the Astros.

Tuesday’s win was the eighth straight for the Dodgers, matching their longest streak of 2021. But thoughts before the game were of four years ago when the sign-stealing Astros beat the Dodgers to win the World Series 2017. That will never go change, nor should it.

“I know it’s a while ago, but there’s something weird there. It’s different coming back. You just want to beat those guys,” said Austin Barnes, who caught Kershaw on Tuesday and started all seven games behind the plate during the 2017 World Series. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it. I mean, winning helps. Obviously, if we never won a World Series, it would have been pretty hard.

“We could have won two World Series.”

This was Kershaw’s first start in Houston since Game 5 of the 2017 World Series, when he was staked to leads of 4-0 and 7-4 but couldn’t complete the fifth inning, allowing six runs in a game the Dodgers lost in 10 innings. Amid a trash-can-banging scheme that alerted Astros batters, Kershaw on that night threw 51 breaking pitches and got just one swing and miss.

“Any time you lose a World Series, it doesn’t feel good. Then with everything wrapped around it, you don’t really have the closure maybe that you would want,” Kershaw said. “After winning last year, I do think that alleviated some things. For me, it lifted a lot off my shoulders that I had been feeling for a long time.”

On Tuesday, Kershaw got six whiffs on his 50 breaking balls and finished off all six of his strikeouts with offspeed stuff — four on the slider, and two on the curve. This is nothing new for Kershaw, whose 51 strikeouts on his slider entering Tuesday were the most on any single pitch in the majors this year.

“Obviously the pitch count was low, but the long innings I was really mindful of,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Just knowing he’s going to go Sunday in a day game, so it couldn’t have worked out any better.”

It was Kershaw’s longest outing since pitching eight innings in Game 2 of last year’s wild card series.

The offense came early from a pair of veterans who were integral to each of the Dodgers three World Series trips in the previous four seasons. Justin Turner opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the fourth, the first hit of the game against Zack Greinke.

It snapped a 12-game skid without an extra-base hit for Turner, who had five hits in 45 at-bats during that span.

“Hitting is a trade that nobody will master,” Turner said. “It’s constant adjustments and tinkering, trying to get the right feels until you know you got it. I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot right now.”

Turner also singled in the sixth inning, the first of four straight Dodgers to reach base with two outs, culminating in a two-run single by Chris Taylor, starting in center field just like he did in Game 5 four years ago. Both Taylor and Turner had two hits.

Turner will start at designated hitter on Wednesday Roberts said.

After Greinke left, the Dodgers poured it on against a shaky Astros bullpen, scoring one run on a wild pitch and three more on back-to-back-to-back bases-loaded walks.

The Dodgers have won all three games in Houston since the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme came to light.

Game 1 Boxscore:

WP: Clayton Kershaw (7-3)

LP: Zack Greinke (4-2)

HR: Justin Turner (8); Alex Bregman (6)

The Dodgers look for a two-game sweep of the Astros and their ninth straight win tonight. The first pitch is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. and can be seen on SportsNet LA and ESPN. Trevor Bauer starts for Los Angeles, and Luis García starts on the mound for the Astros.

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– Joe Arrigo

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