Dodgers-Cardinals Game 3 Summary

                            Shohei Ohtani got the start in today’s game against the Cardinals who countered with Mathew Liberatore. Ohtani pitched a clean first then led off the bottom of the 1st with a walk. He was erased on a double play ground out by Betts. Smith then struck out to end the inning.  St. Louis went down in order in the second. In the bottom of the inning, Freeman singled, but then Teo, Pages and Rojas all made outs. 

                          In the top of the 3rd, Walker singled and stole second. Pages struck out. Scott grounded out sending Walker to third. Donovan singled scoring Walker. Hererra struck out. Wall led off the bottom of the inning with a double. Freeland was out on a foul bunt popup. Ohtani homered to left center, his 39th and the Dodgers led 2-1. Betts doubled. Smith grounded out to short. Freeman had an infield single moving Betts to third. Teo flied out to end the inning. 

                          Ohtani got the Cards out in order in the 4th. Pages led off the Dodger 4th with a single. He moved to second on a wild pitch. He then stole third and scored on a throwing error. Dodgers up 3-1. Rojas, Call and Freeland made outs to end the inning. Wrobleski took over for Ohtani. Gorman struck out.  Walker singled and Pages hit a ground rule double moving Walker to third. Scott struck out, and Donovan grounded out to end the inning. 

                       Ohtani led off the 5th with a walk, but was stranded when Betts lined out, Smith struck out and Freeman flied out to left. In the top of the 6th, Hererra walked, and Burleson then singled to right with Herrera taking third. Nootbaar hit a sharp grounder to Betts who threw to first, with Herrera scoring on the play. Burleson safe at second. Winn singled to right with Burleson taking third. Gorman struck out and Winn stole second. Walker then grounded to Wrobleski who threw him out at first. 3-2 LA.

                    Leahy, who had replaced Liberatore in the fifth, struck out the side in the 6th getting Hernandez, Pages and Rojas out. In the top of the 7th, Pablo Pages singled and moved to second on Scott’s sacrifice bunt. Donovan flied out to left and Herrera struck out to end the inning. In the bottom of the 7th, Leahy gave up a single to Call but got Freeland to hit into a double play. Jo Jo Romero relieved Leahy and struck out Ohtani to end the inning.

                  Top of the eighth, Vesia replaced Wrobleski. Burleson singled to right. Nootbaar flied out to center and Winn won a long at bat singling to left sending Burleson to second. Pozo PH for Gorman and flied out to center. Walker singled to center scoring Burleson, Pages threw to third trying to nail Winn, but the throw was late, Freeland, thinking he had a shot at getting Walker at second fired the ball past Rojas into right and Winn scored. 4-3 St. Louis. Pages was intentionally walked and Scott struck out ending the inning. 

                  In the bottom of the 8th, Betts and Smith grounded out. Freeman singled to right, his 3rd hit. O’Reily replaced Romero and Teo grounded out to end the 8th. In the top of the 9th, Stewart replaced Vesia. Donovan singled to right and Stewart then hit Herrera with a pitch. Burleson lined out to center with Donovan taking third. Nootbaar doubled scoring Donovan and sending Herrera to third. Winn walked loading the bases. Saggese struck out and Walker flied out to center. In the bottom of the 9th, Pages flied out to center. Conforto PH for Rojas and grounded out to first. Muncy PH for Call and walked. Freeland then grounded out to second on a 3-2 pitch to end the game. 

              After starting off with a bang against Liberatore, the Dodger offense was totally shut down by the Cardinals bull pen. They were 2-8 with runners in scoring position and hit into two rally killing double plays. They had 8 hits, 2 walks and struck out 6 times. The Dodger bullpen gave up 10 of the Cardinals 12 hits. Padres scored 2 in the 9th to beat Arizona 3-2. Miller got the save. LA’s lead down to 2 games. We will see what kind of heart this team has. 6 of their next 9 games against winning teams. Toronto and the Padres. They play the Angels three in Anaheim next week. Their backs are up against the wall. We will see what kind of team we really have. 

                                                                                                          AFFILATE SCORES

                                                                               OKC 6 El Paso 7 

                                           The Comets jumped out to a 6-0 lead by the 7 inning and the bullpen allowed 7 runs to El Paso in the last three frames for the loss. Ward was 2-4 with 3 driven in, Ramos homered for one of his two hits and drove in the other 3 runs, Gauthier was 2-2 with a run scored. Romero gave up 3 hits, a walk, no runs and struck out 3 in his 5 innings. Gervase, 2 runs, Klein 3, and Henriquez, 2 gave up the 7 runs over the last 2.1 innings. Henriquez got the loss. 

                                                                             Tulsa 14 Corpus Christie 3

                                           The Drillers scored 3 in the top of the first and then scored in every inning of the game, never looking back to pound the Hooks, 14-3.  James Tibbs III, acquired in the trade with Boston for Dustin May, was 4-4 with 4 RBIs and he walked twice. 2 of his hits were solo homers. Keith was 3-5 with 3 driven in, one of his hits his 11th homer, a 2-run shot in the first inning. Newell and Rhodes had 2 hit games, Newell drove in 2, as did Young whose sole hit was a double. Fox started and went 4 innings allowing 2 runs. Suarez pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless relief and got the win, his 3rd.

                                                                         Great Lakes 1 Lansing 3

                                      The Loons lost a strong pitching performance by Wyatt Crowell who went 6 scoreless innings as the starter. They had a 1-0 lead on a groundout by Wagner in the 4th that scored Quintero who had tripled. Evan Shaw came in to pitch the 7th and allowed all three Lansing runs. Great Lakes only managed 3 hits in the loss. 

                                                                        Rancho 2 Lake Elsinore 4

                                       Rancho had a 2-0 lead after 4 innings then were held scoreless by the Storm’s pitchers. The Storm scored 2 in the 7th to tie and 2 in the top of the 9th for the win. Rancho had 7 hits but made 2 errors. Foeller went 6 scoreless innings allowing just 2 hits, walking 3 and striking out 5. Vilchez blew the save allowing the 2 runs in the 7th. The loss went to Brown who pitched the 9th. Vargas hit a homer, but the only Quake with more than 1 hit was Meza who was 2-3. Quakes at 54-47 still first in the Cal Leagues Southern division.