*Photo from The Athletic*
Series tied 1-1
Cody Bellinger has struggled this season, there's no denying that. So who would've guessed that Bellinger would be the one to turn the tide. Bellinger drove in two runs, AJ Pollock drove in two runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants 9-2 on Saturday night.
The win evens up the series at 1-1 as it shifts south to Los Angeles. Julio Urias, the starting pitcher for the Dodgers, may have done well on the mound, but, he also helped his cause at the plate. The pitcher with 9 RBI during the regular season got RBI number one of the playoffs, for both himself and the whole Dodger offense, with a second inning RBI single.
Urias said of his RBI hit that "I think the adrenaline kicks in. Obviously after they walked Pollock, you kind of want to do a little bit better, you want to try a little bit harder. And I think that opportunity kind of pushed me a little bit more to try to get a hit in that spot, and it worked out."
In the top of the second, Urias and Mookie Betts delivered RBI singles to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the second, Wilmer Flores scored on a Donovan Solano sac fly to get the Giants on the board, making it a 2-1 game. In the top of the 6th inning, Bellinger and Pollock delivered two run doubles, making it 6-1, but a Brandon Crawford RBI single in the bottom half made it 6-2.
The 8th inning was when the Dodgers really put it away. It started when Will Smith jacked a solo home run to left field, giving the Dodgers a 7-2 lead with time dwindling. Matt Beaty then delivered a pinch hit RBI single to make it an 8-2 ballgame. Corey Seager decided he wanted an RBI too, with an RBI single giving the Dodgers a 9-2 lead, ending the game.
Betts talked about the response after a game one loss, saying that "I think we are always pretty confident. We have a good group of guys here, play the game hard, play the game the right way."
Urias got the win for the Dodgers, allowing one run on 3 hits and one walk, fanning 5 hitters across 5 innings pitched, giving the Dodgers exactly what they needed out of him. Joe Kelly gave up one run during his one inning of relief. After that, Corey Knebel, Brusdar Graterol, and Phil Bickford shut the door on the Giants to preserve the win.
On the Giants side, Kevin Gausman took the loss in his first start this postseason, being charged with 4 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, still striking out 7 hitters over 5 1/3 innings pitched. Dominic Leone finished the 6th inning, but still gave up two runs while doing so. Jake McGee followed with a clean inning, which led to Zack Littell giving up 3 runs while being unable to make it out of the 8th inning. Jarlin Garcia and Kervin Castro finished it off in relief.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said of his lineup's struggle against the lefty Urias that "Every time we've put our right-handed-hitting lineup out there against a left-handed starter, we always feel really good about it because if you go man-for-man up and down our lineup, we just have good numbers, particularly against lefties. So you kind of think that's going to show up in games against left-handed starters, but it really hasn't happened for us consistently throughout the season. It's been one of the areas that we sort of struggled."
Game 3 of the series is on Monday night in Los Angeles, where NL Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer will get the start for the Dodgers. The Giants on the other hand, will send lefty Alex Wood to the mound.
Comments
Post a Comment