Kershaw Strikes Out 11, Then Dodgers Battle Back After Losing Lead
Following their lone off day in the month of June, the Los Angeles Dodgers began a three-game set with the San Diego Padres at Petco Park and looked to continue their winning streak after sweeping another National League West foe, the Arizona Diamondbacks, on Wednesday.Justin Turner made his return to the lineup as Clayton Kershaw took the mound for the Dodgers.
After drawing a leadoff walk to begin the game, Joc Pederson was caught stealing second base with one out and Adrian Gonzalez at the plate. Gonzalez finished his at-bat with a chopper to second for the third out and Odrisamer Despaigne had a scoreless first inning in the books.
Meanwhile Kershaw survived a bit of a scare in his opening inning. Facing Justin Upton with two outs, a line drive hit off Kershaw’s hip resulting in an infield single for the Padres’ left fielder. The Dodgers’ ace remained in the game and retired Yangervis Solarte two batters later to end the inning.
The Dodger offense had nothing going for them in the second aside from Andre Ethier’s two-out single. Jimmy Rollins managed to get ahead in the count 3-0, only to go down swinging. Likewise, the Padres were quiet as well the second. Kershaw kept the game scoreless thanks in part to collecting his second and third strikeouts of the game.
Pederson reached base for the second time in the game as Despaigner hit him with a pitch in the third inning. After Yasiel Puig reached on a Will Middlebrooks error, Gonzalez cashed in with an RBI single up the middle to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Upton drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the third and moved into scoring position by stealing second base.
Whereas Gonzalez hurt his former team, Matt Kemp failed to the do the same, striking out swinging to end the inning with the Padres still trailing. Turner led off the fourth with a base hit to left and took second on Ethier’s slow groundout. A.J. Ellis later delivered with two outs by dropping an RBI single in front of Upton in left field to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0.
Kershaw continued to collect strikeouts as he got two more Padres to go down on strikes as part of a scoreless fourth inning after issuing a leadoff walk to Yangervis Solarte. With Puig on first base in the fifth, Gonzalez drove a ball deep but only to the warning track in left field for the second out. Howie Kendrick grounded into a force out at second and the Dodgers lead held at 2-0.
CONTINUE READING: Adrian Gonzalez Gets Ejected And Dodgers Commit Costly Error In 7th
Whats it gonna take to cut our losses on Jimmy Rollins….he STINKS. Thats that.
That Garcia dude should be cut! First, he doesn’t understand that, as a pitcher, you get out of the way of the fielders in a pop-up situation, then he blows Kershaw’s win! Nice knowing you!