FSM Essential Recap: Dodgers vs Brewers - Series 9

FSM Essential Recap: Dodgers vs. Brewers – Series 9

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Los Angeles Dodgers (17-12)  |  Milwaukee Brewers (17-11)

 

“No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you’re going to win one-third of your games. It’s the other third that makes the difference.”

– Tommy Lasorda

 

 

Game 4:

 

Matt Beaty and AJ Pollock each have historic days at the plate as Dodgers snap their losing streak.

There are no words to describe what happened in Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon. I’ll try my best to summarize it all up as best I can with this recap. Most importantly, though, the Dodgers defeated the Brewers 16-4 to end their losing streak.

AJ Pollock and Matt Beaty each had a historic day at the plate. Beaty drove in a career-high seven runs, with his teammate Pollock showing him up by driving in eight runs. The duo became the first pair of players in Dodgers history to record at least seven RBI in one game, and only the sixth pair of teammates in MLB history to pull it off.

Pollock also became the sixth player in franchise history to drive in eight runs in a game. The crazy part is, Pollock was a few feet away from hitting a home run in the eighth inning. That homer would have given him 10 RBI in the game, which would have set a Dodgers record.

Alright, let’s recap how this all went down and keep score.

With the bases loaded in the first inning, Beaty hit an infield single with the bases loaded to give the Dodgers the lead. Just like that, the Dodgers were up 1-0. (Beaty 1/Pollock 0)

Well, that didn’t last long, as Pollock stepped up next and hit a grand slam, the second of his career.

After scoring five runs in the first inning, the Dodgers responded with four more in the second thanks to Beaty. He had the bases loaded and barely sent this one over the fence. Luckily he got enough help from the wind, as his grand slam gave the Dodgers the 9-0 lead.

Beaty and Pollock became the first pair of Dodgers teammates to hit a grand slam in the same game since Adrian Beltre and Shawn Green did it on May 21, 2000.

 

Beaty extended his lead in the fourth inning. After back-to-back singles, Beaty drove in two runs with a single, putting him at seven RBI in only the fourth inning. Since being brought back up from the alternate site, Beaty has nine hits, 11 RBI, and four walks. He’s been seeing the ball better than anyone over the past week.

Pollock was back in the sixth inning looking to chip into his deficit against Beaty. Well, he tied things up. With two on, Pollock hit a three-run homer for his second home run of the afternoon, tying the RBI counter at seven for each player.

With the battle all knotted up, Pollock stepped up to the plate in the eighth inning with two on. He was in a prime position to take the lead on Beaty. Well, he did, and he just missed setting the Dodgers single-game record for RBI in a game with 10. Pollock doubled, missing a home run by a couple of feet. Instead of his third homer of the day, he had to settle for a one-run double, putting him at 8 RBI on the afternoon.

They each had a chance to add on more in the ninth inning, as each player stepped up to the plate with runners on the corners. Unfortunately, neither could bring in a run to add to their total.

For good measure, Chris Taylor also had a pretty damn good afternoon. He scored five runs, becoming the first Dodgers player to score that many in a game since Shawn Green, who scored six on May 23, 2002… also in Milwaukee. He became the 9th player in franchise history to score at least 5 runs in a game.

Oh, lost in the amazing offense was Julio Urias’ outstanding performance. After a very rough couple of games from the bullpen, the Dodgers desperately needed Urias to give them a lot of innings of save some arms in the bullpen. Well, he did just that.

Urias gave the Dodgers seven innings and allowed only one run. He struck out 10, the second time this season he’s reached double-digits in strikeouts. He ate innings, but he was just in cruise control all game. The Brewers offense really couldn’t get anything going off of him. L.A. couldn’t have asked for a better outing from Urias.

Mike Kickham pitched in the 8th and 9th inning for the Dodgers. Kickham was called up earlier in the day and added to the 40-man roster after Dustin May was placed on the 10-day IL and Corey Knebel was moved to the 60-day IL. Kickham allowed three runs in his two innings of work.

 

Game 4 Boxscore:

 

WP: Julio Urias (4-0 / 2.87 ERA)

LP: Alec Bettinger (0-1 / 24.75 ERA)

HR: AJ Pollock, 2 (4) Matt Beaty (1)

 

 

Game 3:

 

Saturday’s game added a new wrinkle to the growing list of things the Dodgers are missing of late, but the 6-5 loss to the Brewers was also a chance to take inventory of what’s still in stock, with 22 different Dodgers appearing in the game.

Will Smith was one of the few Dodgers hitting of late, and though he didn’t even start this game he extended his hitting streak to four games. His two-run triple off Drew Rasmussen gave the Dodgers two go-ahead runs in the 11th.

Smith’s first career triple was the first by a Dodgers catcher in two seasons, and just the eighth extra-inning triple ever by a Dodgers catcher. The last was by A.J. Ellis in 2011.

The second bullpen game in a row for the Dodgers was an unplanned one, after a wincing Dustin May walked off the mound just 27 pitches into his fifth start of the season, suffering a right arm injury, the extent of which is unclear.

May will get an MRI once the Dodgers get to Chicago, where they begin a series on Monday against the Cubs.

Garrett Cleavinger was the pitcher tasked with relieving May, and though he allowed a game-tying solo home run, he also got the Dodgers through the fourth. The left-hander was a depth pickup in December, now touching 97 mph with four strikeouts in 15 batters faced — a 26.7-percent strikeout rate — in his first three appearances.

“These guys have so much knowledge, and they’re so good at what they do,” Cleavinger said Saturday of pitching coach Mark Prior and his deep staff. “Being able to come to an environment like this really sets people up for success. They take what you do very well, and they try and maximize that, and they just let you go out and be the best pitcher you can be.”

Nine Dodgers relievers combined for 27 outs, including the quartet of Jimmy Nelson, Scott Alexander, Victor Gonzalez, and Blake Treinen each pitching for a second consecutive night. Kenley Jansen, pitching in his first game since Monday, pitched a scoreless eighth.

 

Left-hander Alex Vesia, who was called up earlier Saturday as a fresh arm in the bullpen, was put in a sink-or-swim position, with leads in the 10th and 11th innings in his Dodgers debut. Vesia choose the former by walking two to load the bases in each frame. A sacrifice fly scored the equalizer in the 10th inning, but in the 11th Vesia wasn’t given a chance to get out of another jam of his own creation.

Mitch White, who pitched two innings on Friday, entered with the bases loaded and nobody out, trying to clean up the mess. The fifth Dodger to pitch both Friday and Saturday, White was effective, allowing one inherited run to score on a fly ball then getting a strikeout. A potential game-ending ground ball to Corey Seager’s right instead went untouched into left field for the game-tying run, the second unsuccessful back-handed attempt of the night for Seager.

Mookie Betts was one of many Dodgers struggling of late, but after a day off Friday to reset, he was in the middle of things on Saturday. He slammed the first pitch of the game 406 feet over the center field wall for his first home run since April 13, after a not-so-nice drought of 69 plate appearances.

Betts was also hit by a pitch in the third inning, on the same left elbow that was plunked on April 19 in Seattle and caused him to miss a game. But this time the ball hit an elbow pad, which Betts discarded before rounding the bases to score on a triple by Seager.

In the fifth inning, Betts singled to put runners on the corners with one out, but Brandon Woodruff struck out Seager and Justin Turner to squash one of the Dodgers’ best scoring chances of the weekend.

 

WP: Angel Perdomo (1-0 / 7.11 ERA)

LP: Alex Vesia (0-1 / 18.00 ERA)

HR: Mookie Betts (3); Luis Urías (3), Travis Shaw (5)

 

The Dodgers conclude their 4 game series in Milwaukee this morning. Julio Urías gets the call on Sunday morning. Milwaukee’s starter will be right-hander Alec Bettinger, making his major league debut. Tune into the game at 11:10am on SportsNet LA.

 

 

Game 2:

 

The script was quite familiar for the Dodgers on Friday night, who couldn’t solve the Brewers starting pitcher, and a two-run home run proved enough in a 3-1 Milwaukee win.

Though the cast of characters was longer than usual with a bullpen game, run prevention was a strength for the Dodgers. Six pitchers combined to allow three runs, perfectly consistent with the club’s 3.20 ERA over the last 12 games.

But they are 3-9 during that stretch thanks to an increasingly frustrating offense.

Freddy Peralta handcuffed the Dodgers on Friday, striking out seven in six innings. He allowed just one hit, a solo home run by AJ Pollock in the fifth inning, but otherwise kept the Dodgers at bay.

The only time the Dodgers had runners in scoring position was in the first inning, thanks to a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch, but L.A. was 0-for-2 with a walk and did not score in the frame.

The most running done in the top half of an inning on Friday came when manager Dave Roberts couldn’t take it anymore. After a disputed check swing by Chris Taylor was ruled a strike by first base umpire Angel Hernandez, Roberts said enough from the dugout to get thrown out of the game, then proceeded to run from the third-base dugout to first base to get his money’s worth with Hernandez.

“I didn’t agree with the earlier balk call on [Jimmy] Nelson, and right there I’m in the third base dugout so I don’t have a great angle,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained. “But it was pretty clear to me from the back side that CT didn’t go around. As a hitter, or anyone who’s played the game, knows that a 2-0 count is considerably different than a 1-1 count.

“I just think we all need to be held accountable, and he missed it.”

It was the first time Roberts was ejected this year and the seventh of his managerial career.

Friday was the seventh time in the last 13 games the Dodgers were held to two runs or less.

“It’s tough. It’s frustrating, and it seems awful,” Pollock said. “But it’s like, in baseball, you play 162. Sometimes you go through little stuff like this, as an offense.”

A span of two pitches caught a real penthouse-outhouse moment for Uceta, who struck out Travis Shaw swinging with a four-seam fastball for the first out of the second inning. On the television broadcast, it looked like Uceta had to be reminded to save the ball, which he did.

“I knew I struck him out, but I wasn’t really focused on that,” Uceta said after the game, through a translator. “When I got the ball, it took me a while to pause and throw it out.”

But his very next pitch, also a four-seamer, was hit off the base of the second deck in right field for a two-run home run.

Uceta allowed four hits and a walk among his nine batters faced but managed to get through two innings thanks to some heads-up defensive plays that ended with Justin Turner tagging someone out. In the first inning, catcher Omar Narvaez grounded into a force-out, but the throw to first got away and bounced off the dugout rail. Uceta was there to retrieve it and threw it to Turner, who tagged Narvaez, who had already committed toward second base.

In the second inning, AJ Pollock made a wonderful throw on the run to third base to nab Luis Urías, who was trying to advance from first base on a single. Urías made a fantastic swim move to briefly evade Turner’s tag, but Turner was able to tag his right arm before Urías got to the bag.

 

Game 2 Boxscore:

 

WP: Freddy Peralta (3-0  / 2.25 ERA)

LP: Edwin Uceta (0-1 / 9.00 ERA)

SV: Hader (7)

HR: AJ Pollock (2); Jackie Bradley Jr. (2)

 

The two teams are back at it Saturday evening. The first pitch is at 4:10 p.m. and can bee seen on SportsNet LA and MLB Network. Dustin May will be facing Brandon Woodruff.

 

 

Game 1:

The Dodgers were beaten by a familiar foe on Friday, with Eric Lauer and friends combining for a 2-1 Brewers win in the first game of a four-game weekend series in Milwaukee.

A ninth-inning rally against Josh Hader — singles by Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes, plus a balk — brought the Dodgers their only run of the night, but the Brewers closer got Mookie Betts to fly out to end the game, sending the Dodgers to their eighth loss in 11 games.

Lauer was his usual brilliant self against the Dodgers, needing 73 pitches to keep them away from home plate. A steady diet of mostly fastballs of varying speeds and changeups had the Dodgers off balance all night, though perhaps the Dodgers can count as a measure of success that Lauer struck out three, the first time he’s fanned fewer than five in a start against Los Angeles.

Despite collecting four singles and two walks against Lauer, they didn’t even get a runner in scoring position against him until two outs in the fifth inning, when the left-hander got Corey Seager to fly out weakly to left to end the threat. That was deemed enough of a threat to get Lauer out of the game — well, that, and the fact that his spot in the batting order led off the bottom of the frame.

With his five innings Thursday, Lauer lowered his career ERA against the Dodgers to 1.89 in eight starts. Lauer has started 49 innings against Los Angeles in his career, and he’s finished 39 of them scoreless.

“He’s got our number, I guess,”  Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

As formidable as the Brewers bullpen is, at least they weren’t Lauer. But they were still effective enough to keep the Dodgers off the scoreboard until the ninth. The biggest threat of the first eight innings came against reigning Rookie of the Year Devin Williams, who allowed two hits and a walk in the eighth, an inning that might have provided run(s) for the Dodgers were it not for this spectacular rally-snuffing double play by Luis Urías and Kolten Wong.

 

Trevor Bauer pitched eight innings, the first Dodgers pitcher to record an out in the eighth inning this season, throwing 113 pitches, also a season-high for the team.

Clayton Kershaw was the last Dodgers pitcher to last this long, pitching eight innings against Milwaukee in Game 2 of the 2020 wild card series. The last Dodger to record an out of the eighth inning in a regular-season game was Walker Buehler’s on August 3, 2019., which was also the club’s last complete game before Bauer on Thursday.

“Doc [Roberts] did promise me when he took me out of the game after six innings last time he would let me pitch a complete game,” Bauer quipped. “Unfortunately, this was the eight-inning variety and a loss.”

When asked about this pact, Roberts chuckled. “Promise is a little strong,” he said.

It was the sixth time in six starts Bauer’s lasted at least six innings, though he had a devil of a time in the fourth. After getting the first two outs of the frame, then throwing a first-pitch strike to Avisail Garcia, Bauer threw six straight balls, walking Garcia and falling behind Travis Shaw.

A pair of fastballs for called strikes got Bauer back even with Shaw, but a knuckle-curve was hit into the seats down the line in right field for a two-run lead.

“It was probably the wrong pitch,” Bauer said. “I wanted to throw another pitch but second-guessed myself. That will get you every time.”

At the very least, getting 15 combined innings from Kershaw and Bauer in consecutive days is as good a setup as possible heading into a bullpen day. But for Thursday, at least, the Dodgers didn’t get much to show for it.

“We’re at full strength tomorrow, and that’s a credit to Trevor,” Roberts said.

 

Game 1 Boxscore:

 

WP: Eric Lauer (1-0 / 0.66 ERA)

LP: Trevor Bauer (3-1 / 2.61 ERA)

SV: John Hader (6)

HR: Travis Shaw (4)

 

The Dodgers and Brewers are back at it tonight. Freddie Peralta will take the mound for the Brewers while the Dodgers have yet to name a starter. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m and the game can be seen on SportsNet LA.

 

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