Alex Wood Throws 8 Scoreless, A.J. Ellis And Corey Seager Provide Offense
Offense remained at a premium in the bottom of the fifth with De La Rosa keeping the Dodgers off the bases, and striking out Joc Pederson and Wood in the process. Brandon Barnes nearly tied the game in the sixth, only for his fly ball to hook foul of the left-field pole. The at-bat ended with Barnes striking out on a pitch in the dirt.
Ruggiano helped his pitcher out by making a sliding catch in left field, and Wood ended the inning by getting Blackmon looking — a strike three call the Rockies center fielder did not agree with and exchanged words with home plate umpire John Tumpane.
Austin Barnes, who started at second base, led off the bottom of the sixth with a double down the third base line. Chase Utley grounded out to the right side, which allowed Barnes to advance to third base. After Ruggiano hit back to the box for the second out, Seager extended the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0 with an RBI single.
Wood’s first bout with ineffectiveness on the night came in the seventh when he fell behind in the count 3-0 to Jose Reyes. However, Reyes flied out to right field two pitches later. Arenado also flied out to right, and Wilin Rosario flied to center. Wood was through seven scoreless innings on an efficient 72 pitches.
Chris Heisey hit a one-out double in the bottom of the sixth, but was stranded by Pederson and Wood. Failing to help himself at the plate didn’t hurt Wood as he got through a scoreless eighth inning on six pitches. De La Rosa’s eighth inning of work was made slightly more difficult as Reyes allowed Ruggiano to reach on a two-out error.
Nothing came of it as Seager struck out swinging to end the inning. Kenley Jansen entered in the ninth for his first action since Sept. 13 and struck out pinch-hitter Carlos Gonzalez, who represented the tying run after a Blackmon two-out single, to convert his 32nd save of the season.
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