Well, it wasn’t always pretty, but after 8 ½ innings, the Dodgers finished off the San Diego Padres and completed a 3-game sweep of the Friars. The Dodgers limped back home after getting swept by LAA to face the red hot Padres. The Padres had taken a 1 game lead in the NL West and things looked fairly ominous.
Of course the Dodgers wanted a sweep, but going into the series, I think they would have been fine with a series win of 2-1 and leaving town in a tie for the NL West.
Clayton Kershaw started Game 1 and went a solid 6.0 innings. He allowed 1 run on a Ramón Laureano HR that hit the foul pole. Alex Vesia continued his struggles by hitting two batters, allowing a sac bunt, a BB, and a Sac Fly, before exiting and Blake Treinen throwing 1 pitch to get Manny Machado to pop out. 5 relievers in total pitched in game 1 while allowing a single run.
Blake Snell started Game 1 and also completed 6.0 innings. The Padres did not score off Snell after 5 hits and 2 BB. He struck out a very uncharacteristic 3 Padres batters. Three relievers kept San Diego off the board.
Tyler Glasnow started Game 3. After 1 inning, he was staked to a 4-0 lead thanks to a Freddie Freeman 3-run HR, and an Andy Pages solo HR.
The Padres started to claw back in the 3rd. Glasnow walked Jake Cronenworth to start the 3rd for his only BB of his game, and it came back to bite him. Freddy Fermin singled to CF and was thrown out by a tremendous throw from Pages, with Cronenworth moving to 3rd. Cronenworth scored on a Fernando Tatis Jr double, but Glasnow stranded him after ground outs by Luis Arreaz and Machado.
In the 5th, Laureano hit a fly ball to RF that got into the wind and just made it over the fence for his 2nd HR of the series. Glasnow finished off the 5th, but his pitch count was up to 91. The pitch count was escalated in the 3rd inning (23 pitches) and the 5th inning (24 pitches). He was at 45 pitches for the other 3 innings.
Glasnow had 14 whiffs and his slider was a good out pitch for the day. He had 9 whiffs on 17 swings on his slider.
Anthony Banda relieved Glasnow in the 6th, his 3rd consecutive appearance. He allowed a pair of doubles and with one out and one run in, he was relieved by Ben Casparius with a runner on 2nd. A HBP, ground ball force out, and a strike out and Casparius got out of the inning without another run scoring.
Blake Treinen relieved Casparius in the 7th. He struck out Tatis Jr. and Arreaz hit a flair into CF for a single. He worked himself around to 3rd on a pair of SB, but Blake left him on 3rd. He got big help form HPU Jeremie Rehak when he called strike one to Machado on a 3-0 count. Instead of a walk, Machado ended up flying out. The HPU was horrific all game to both teams, but I am not sure if there was a more egregious blown call in this game.
Alexis Diaz came in to relieve Treinen and he did not have as successful of an outing as he did Friday. A HBP and double put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Alex Vesia was summoned, and everyone was holding their breath. A force out on a ground ball hit to 2nd got the run tying run home. Vesia got Fermin on another ground out and got out of the inning.
After Andy Pages’ HR in the 1st inning, Padres pitchers retired the next 15 consecutive batters. Teoscar Hernández hit a 2 out flair into CF that Hernández obviously thought was going to be caught, and he jogged to 1B. The ball fell and Hernández did not get to 2nd on a ball he absolutely could have had he hustled out of the box. Pages followed with a flair of his own, that would have scored Hernández from 2nd but he ended up at 3rd. Alex Call, PH for Michael Conforto, struck out.
All knotted up at 4-4, Mookie came to bat against closer Robert Suarez. Mookie slugged a lead off HR giving the Dodgers 5-4 lead.
On to the 9th. Vesia wanted the ball and he was due to face the top of the lineup: Tatis Jr., Arreaz, and Machado. Vesia got Tatis Jr. and Arreaz on foul pop out to Freddie, and struck out Machado.
The good guys won. Maybe some luck was involved, but they have lost more games due to a lot of bad luck.
For the series, some key hitters:
- Fernando Tatis Jr. – 3-11, 1 BB, 4 K
- Luis Arreaz – 4-11, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SF
- Manny Machado – 1-12, 1 BB, 4 K
- Xander Bogaerts – 1-11, 2 K, 1 HBP
- Ramón Laureano – 2 HR
- Shohei Ohtani – 2-9, 3 BB, 2 K
- Mookie Betts – 1-9, 2 BB, 1 SF, HR
- Will Smith – 0-12, 2 BB, 5 K
- Freddie Freeman – 2-10, 1 BB, 3 K, 3-run HR
- Teoscar Hernández – 2 HR
- Andy Pages – 1 HR
Hitting wRISP – LAD 3-13, SD 3-20
Hits – LAD 15, SD 20
BB received – LAD 12, SD 6
K (Batters) – LAD 26, SD 24
Great sweep, now that is in the rear view mirror, and the Dodgers will be in Colorado for 4 games.
MiLB GAME SUMMARY REPORTS
OKC Comets 9 – Albuquerque Isotopes (Colorado) 5
Home runs by Ryan Ward, Kody Hoese and CJ Alexander led the Oklahoma City Comets to a 9-5 win against the Albuquerque Isotopes Sunday night.
The homers — each hit with two outs — accounted for seven of the Comets’ runs in the series finale between the teams. Oklahoma City scored three runs in the third inning and went on to lead the rest of the game. Alexander hit a RBI triple before Ward sent a two-run homer out to left field for a 3-0 advantage in the third inning.
Albuquerque loaded the bases in the fourth inning and brought in runs on a fielder’s choice and a sacrifice fly to trim OKC’s lead to one run.
The Comets responded with five runs in the fourth inning, including a three-run home run out to left-center field by Hoese and two-run homer by Alexander out to right field. Oklahoma City went ahead, 9-2, on a RBI groundout by Austin Gauthier in the fifth inning.
Albuquerque chipped away at OKC’s lead, scoring a run on a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning and a two-run home run by Sam Hilliard in the seventh inning.
Ryan Ward connected on a two-run home run in the third inning for his PCL-leading 29th home run of the season and his first homer since July 25 in Reno…With the two-run homer, he tied OKC’s single-season record for RBI and now has a Minor League-leading 107 RBI this season. His 107 RBI are tied with Jason Martin (2022) for the most by an Oklahoma City player during the team’s Bricktown era (since 1998).
Luken Baker finished with a team-high three hits, going 3-for-4 with a double and run scored. He has hit safely in each of his first six games with OKC, going 11-for-23 (.478) with four extra-base hits and four RBI.
CJ Alexander went 2-for-5 with a triple, home run, three RBI and scored two runs. He now has a team-leading five home runs, 24 hits and 16 runs in August and is tied for the team lead with 13 RBI this month…He has hit safely in five straight games, batting .409 with five extra-base hits, five RBI and five runs scored.
Kody Hoese finished with a season-high three RBI, going 1-for-3 with his fifth home run of the season, a walk and two runs. He has hit safely in four straight games and has six RBI over his last five games.
Box Score
San Diego Missions 8 – Tulsa Drillers 1
Tulsa was no hit through 8.1 innings. With one out in the 9th, Zach Ehrhard singled and scored on Nelson Quiroz’s triple (2).
The Drillers used four pitchers, and three of them allowed the 8 runs. Only Jorge Benitez pitched well for 2.0 scoreless innings. He did not allow a hit, but did issue a BB.
Box Score
Great Lakes Loons 5 – Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Milwaukee) 3
Aiden Foeller started and lasted all of 0.2 innings. He surrendered the 3 runs on 2 hits and 3 BB. 6 relievers followed with 8.1 scoreless innings. Combined they allowed a pair of hits and 4 walks to go with a pair of Ks.
Great Lakes had 11 hits. 7 of those hits came from Kendall George (3) and Frank Rodriguez (4).
In the 3rd, the Loons got three straight singles from Jordan Thompson, Frank Rodriguez, and Kendall George with the RBI. Eduardo Quintero hit an infield single to load the bases and Zyhir Hope drew a BB to score Rodriguez.
The Loons tied the game in the 7th with an unearned run. Rodriguez opened with a single that was followed by a BB to George. Samuel Munoz reached on an error with Rodriguez scoring.
Great Lakes scored the go-ahead runs in the 8th. Joe Vetrano singled and moved to 3rd on Frank Rodriguez’s double. Kendall George tripled to score a pair.
- Frank Rodriguez – 4-4, 3 runs, double (6)
- Kendall George – 3-4, 1 BB, 1 run, 2 RBI, triple (7)
- Zyhir Hope – 1-3, 2 BB
Box Score
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 0 – Visalia Rawhide (Arizona) 2
Brady Smith made his California League debut and completed 3.0 scoreless innings. He walked 3 and struck out 3.
Jholbran Herder followed for the next 3.0 innings allowing the two runs (1 earned). William Maynard and Justin Chambers each followed with a scoreless inning with no hits, 1 BB, and 1 K.
The Quakes managed 4 singles and received 3 BB. None of the 7 baserunners crossed the plate. They did strike out a combined 13 times.
Box Score
