*Photo from the Santa Maria Times*
In the trade that brought Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Turner was seen as the second piece, not as important as Scherzer. Boy, he's proving his worth. Turner homered twice, Matt Beaty homered, and the Dodgers rallied past the Milwaukee Brewers with an 8-6 win on Friday night.
The win keeps the Dodgers alive in what is a tight race for the NL West title, as they sit two games behind the division rival San Francisco Giants for first place in the NL West entering play on Saturday, with two games left to play. The Dodgers would have to win out and the Giants would have to lose out for a tiebreaking game 163 to be forced.
Turner said of the tight race that "At this point, I’m just assuming they’re winning because they win a lot, and so do we. Like we keep saying, we have to take care of our own business and we did that tonight. It was a good start to the series and we’ll get back at it tomorrow."
Turner got it going in the first inning, with a solo home run making it 1-0 Dodgers early. In the second inning, the Brewers took a 3-1 lead on RBI doubles from Lorenzo Cain and Kolten Wong, plus an RBI groundout from Omar Narvaez. In the 3rd, it became 5-1 Brewers on an RBI double from Eduardo Escobar, coupled with an RBI single by Luis Urias.
In the 5th inning, Turner launched a game tying grand slam to center field, knotting the game up at 5-5. In the 7th, Beaty hit a solo homer, Mookie Betts scored on a wild pitch, and Max Muncy hit an RBI single, putting the Dodgers ahead 8-5. Dan Vogelbach cut the deficit to 8-6 with an RBI single in the 8th for Milwaukee, but the damage was done.
Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw said "This team is special, you saw it tonight, you saw what Trea did and what this team is capable of doing. I’ve known that. I know that we’re going to do something special this year and I wanted to be a part of that. That’s the hardest part for me right now is just knowing that chances are that it’s not looking good for me in October right now."
If you're wondering about the end of that quote, Kershaw was removed from the game just 1 2/3 innings in, after he didn't look right, and manager Dave Roberts and the team training staff took him out. The Dodgers later announced it was left forearm tightness for Kershaw, and he will undergo further testing, but Kershaw and Roberts didn't seem optimistic about his chances of pitching in the playoffs.
In relief of Kershaw, Blake Treinen got the win for the Dodgers, pitching a scoreless inning in the 7th, which improved his record to 6-5 this season. Brusdar Graterol finished the second inning for Kershaw, and he was followed by Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips, Justin Bruihl, Treinen, Joe Kelly, and Kenley Jansen, with Jansen picking up his 38th save of the season in the 9th.
Jandel Gustave got tagged with the loss for the Brewers, as he was charged with 3 runs on two hits and one walk across 1 2/3 relief innings, seeing his record fall to 1-2 this season. Eric Lauer turned in a no decision for the Brewers, allowing 5 runs on 6 hits and two walks, striking out just 3 hitters in 5 innings pitched. Brent Suter and Hunter Strickland each had relief appearances as well.
Lauer said postgame that " I wouldn't say these games are weird. There’s a little bit of a different feel to them because you know you’re already in and everything. I mean, everybody wants to go out there and finish the season strong, keep their numbers where they’re at. We’re out there to compete and play because that’s what we like to do. Knowing that we’re already in doesn’t really change the fact that we want to win every game we can."
Game two of the series between the Dodgers and Brewers gets underway tonight, with Corbin Burnes looking to stake another claim to the NL Cy Young award as he starts for the Brewers, and the Dodgers send lefty Julio Urias to the mound to try and get closer in the division race.
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