Recap: Dodgers 2, Pirates 3 – 1 Game Closer to the Post-Season
- Updated: September 20, 2015
Sometimes you have to tip your cap. Francisco Liriano kept the Dodgers off-balance all night, striking out 9 and only allowing 4 men into scoring position and giving Clayton Kershaw his first loss in 9 decisions back on June 27th when his ERA was 3.20. Luckily the Giants lost so that moves the Dodgers magic number to clinch the division at 7 games.
AJ Ellis continued to hit while Yasmani Grandal is out making sure he’s healed up, but mainly he’s been in because the Dodgers have faced four consecutive left handers and that gives Don Mattingly a good excuse to rest Grandal since he’s used Ellis against left handers a lot this year, we’ll see how healthy Grandal is tomorrow when the Dodgers face their first right-handed pitcher since Jon Gray on September 14th.
Justin Ruggiano (Ruggs as I like to call him, roogs!) continued to hit well against left-handed pitchers, going 1 for 3 against Liriano, including getting a lead off single, going to second on a wild pitch and then Howie Kendrick showed us how much we missed him by going with the pitch hitting it to right and scoring Ruggiano.
The other Dodger run of the game came with some luck, Alex Guerrero coming in for Justin Turner who left with a sore left knee hit the ball to the shortstop for what looked like an easy double play but the shortstop double clutched before throwing to second and to AG’s credit, he hustled all the way and beat out the throw to first. After Corey Seager walked (0-3, 1 BB 1 SO) AJ Ellis hit a double down the left field line scoring Guerrero and setting up some hilarity as Chris Heisey was intentionally walked to load the bases for Liriano to face Joc Pederson, I was actually thankful for that but Donnie put in Austin Barnes who then got the Pirates their double play, that was the last time the Dodgers would threaten as the Dodgers would go down easy in their last 2 innings.
Now, a lot of people will pile on Hatcher and say he blew the game, but don’t forget Kershaw gave up the lead off double after walking 2 the previous inning, I an understand why did Donnie brought him in. Unfortunately everybody has a bad game and please don’t forget that before last night Hatcher hadn’t given up a run since September 4th, 8 games ago and since he’s come back from the disabled list, has lowered his ERA from 6.05 to 3.93 and being one of the rocks of the bullpen.
Next game will start Sunday at 1:10 PM and the Dodgers will throw Mike Bolsinger (6-3, 3.13 ERA) into the fire against Gerrit Cole (16-8, 2.60 ERA) who beat the Dodgers back on August 7th but gave up 3 runs in 6 innings, see you then.
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