The Dodgers used some unlikely strengths on Friday night to erase a three-run deficit. Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor each hit home runs in a game-tying fifth inning against the Kansas City Royals.
Then they turned to one of their fossil fuels to win it, when veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman, who turns 35 in September, hit a two-out runscoring single to center field in the eighth inning to lift the Dodgers to a 4 . -3 win in front of a crowd of 49,580 at Dodger Stadium.
Mookie Betts sparked the winning rally with a one-out single to left field in the eighth. Betts took second on reliever Will Smith’s errant pick-off throw to first base.
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Shohei Ohtani popped out to the shortstop for the second out, but Freeman reached for an 83 mph slider off the plate and poked a soft single to center – the ball left his bat at 75 mph – to score Betts for a 4-3 lead. .
Right-hander Daniel Hudson pitched a scoreless eighth inning in relief of starter Gavin Stone, and left-hander Alex Vesia gave up a single in a scoreless ninth for the save as the Dodgers ended a two-game losing streak.
Royals starter Cole Ragans, whose five-pitch mix featured a fastball that averaged 96.2 mph and topped out at 97.3 mph, was nearly untouchable for four innings, giving up one hit and two struckouts, and Salvador Perez put the left-hander out for a 3-0 lead with a three-run homer in the top of the fourth.
But that lead disappeared in the fifth inning, a rally that rookie Andy Pages sparked with a one-out infield single to the shortstop hole.
Rojas took the lead on a 3-to-1 count and set up a 94 mph fastball from Ragans, driving his third homer of the season – and 47th of his 11-year career – 370 feet to left field to give the Dodgers to move in. 3-2.
Kiké Hernández grounded back to the mound for the second out, but Taylor, the rarely used utility man who entered this season with a .100 average and .307 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 103 at-bats, jumped on a 2-1 changeup , blasting his first home run into the left-center field pavilion for a 3–3 tie.
Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. helped keep the team tied with a spectacular defensive play in the seventh, racing to shallow left-center for an over-the-shoulder catch from a Pages pop-up, which spun and fired to second baseman Nick Lofton, whose relay to first base, doubled off Teoscar Hernández.
Stone, who entered with a 7-2 record and a 2.93 ERA in 12 starts, faced at least nine batters over three innings, yielding a leadoff single in the third inning for MJ Melendez, who broke for second base while Stone was still in the stretch and was tagged out in a rundown.
But Stone ran into trouble in the fourth inning, with Maikel Garcia leading off with a single to center field, taking second on a grounder by Witt and third on a wild pitch. Vinnie Pasquantino walked to put runners on first and third base with one out.
Stone then hung an 80-mph first-pitch slider on Perez, who destroyed the center-of-the-plate offering for his 11th homer of the season, with the ball leaving the veteran catcher’s bat at 180. 3 km/h and covered 130 meters for a 3 -0 lead.
Stone escaped a first-and-third jam with two outs in the fifth by flying the dangerous Witt to center field, and he retired the side in the sixth and seventh inning to give the Dodgers a chance.
It was the fourth time in nine starts that Stone, who gave up three runs and four hits, struck out three and walked two due to a no-decision, completed seven innings. Stone threw 94 pitches, 61 for strikes. Although he made only eight swinging strikes, Stone had 20 called strikes.
Six-man rotation
Bobby Miller, who has been out since April 13 with a shoulder infection, will return to start Wednesday night’s game in Colorado, meaning the Dodgers, “at this point,” Roberts acknowledged, will go with a six-man rotation that includes Tyler Glasnow. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, James Paxton, Walker Buehler and Stone.
The Dodgers have given the starters extra rest all season by alternating bullpen games and calling up minor leaguers Landon Knack and Elieser Hernández to make spot starts, but they have been reluctant to commit to a six-man rotation because that would shrink their bullpen. from eight to seven relievers.
“I don’t like being pushed into a corner,” Roberts said of his distaste for a six-man starting staff. “Right now it is [it will be] a six-man rotation, but you don’t want to be obliged to that. You know, days off are coming, and you have to appreciate them a little bit [extra] rest for other boys too.
Short hops
Roberts said veteran left-hander Clayton Kershaw, in the final stages of his recovery after shoulder surgery in November, will begin a minor league rehab assignment at Class-A Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday. Kershaw pitched to live hitters in a three-inning, 45-pitch simulated game on Thursday and, barring some misfortune, could return in mid-July.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
