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Dodgers-Royals ST Game 15 Recap: Noel Cuevas Homers, Haren Solid

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In their 15th game of the spring, the Los Angeles Dodgers headed to Surprise Stadium to take on the Kansas City Royals. Dan Haren was scheduled to make his third start of the spring against the Royals’ Jason Vargas.
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The left-hander got the Dodgers to go down in order in the first. Haren countered with a scoreless inning of his own.In the second, the Dodger offense remained hitless to send Haren out for another inning. Haren worked around a pair of two-out singles to keep the score tied at zero. Justin Turner led off the third with a hit by pitch and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Haren. Chone Figgins drove Turner in with a single and put the Dodgers up 1-0.


Haren once again ran into some trouble in the third, allowing consecutive singles with one out; however, he was able to escape with a strikeout and runner thrown out attempting to steal third.

The Royals loaded the bases in the fourth with no outs, but Haren was able to limit the damage to just one run after a pop up double play and another pop out. In the top of the fifth, the Dodgers put two runners on base after a Kyle Farmer single and a Yasiel Puig walk. They were unable to score and the score remained 1-1.

Jose Dominguez came on for the fifth for the Dodgers and was able to work around a walk and a single to keep the tie intact. Scott Van Slyke, Juan Uribe and Turner went down in order in the sixth and the Dodgers sent out Jamey Wright for an inning of work. An error, a walk and a hit by pitch loaded the bases for the Royals before Wright allowed a two-run single to Carlos Peguero. He was able to get out of the inning and send the Dodgers into the seventh, down 3-1. The Dodgers were able to get a run back after A.J. Ellis scored on a wild pitch with Puig at the plate. That’s all they would put on the board to trail 3-2 going into the bottom half.

Paco Rodriguez came in to pitch the seventh and found himself with the bases loaded after a walk, a single and an error. Rodriguez worked out of it getting a force out at the plate, a strikeout and a fly out to keep the deficit at one. Adrian Gonzalez led off the inning with a walk and Van Slyke crushed a ball over the center field wall to put the Dodgers ahead 4-3.


In the bottom of the eighth, the Royals had second and third with two outs and reliever Javy Guerra couldn’t limit the damage. A two-run single from Justin Maxwell gave the Royals a 5-4 lead heading into the ninth inning.

To lead off the ninth inning, Alex Guerrero hit a 400-foot triple to dead center that had Don Mattingly call on the umpires to use replay. Joc Pederson walked with one out and prospect Noel Cuevas, who recently played at Rancho Cucamonga, hit a no doubt, three-run home run to left field, giving the Dodgers a 7-5 lead.

Sam Demel came on in the ninth and the Dodgers got their fifth win of the spring, 7-5.

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Vincent Samperio

Vince is currently the Associate Editor and Social Media Manager for Dodgers Nation. Hailing from San Pedro, CA and a student at Cal State Long Beach, Vince has previously written for the Daily 49er and LASF Magazine.

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