Editorials

Recap: Dodgers Unable To Overcome Maikel Franco’s Grand Slam

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

PAGES: 1 | 2

Rollins led off the fifth with a single, but was erased on a chopper to third base. With Kendrick now on first base, Gonzalez singled to left, which allowed Kendrick to go first to third. After a night of spinning their wheels, the Dodgers finally broke through on an Ethier RBI base hit to right that tied the game.



Ruiz hit a routine chopper to Rollins that the veteran shortstop couldn’t get a grip on, allowing Ruiz to reach on an error to open the bottom of the sixth. Nothing came of it for the Phillies as Wood retired the next three batters faced.

Pederson continued to show discipline at the plate, drawing a four-pitch leadoff walk against Justin De Fratus. Whereas it was the third walk for Pederson, Guerrero followed it by striking out a third time on the night. Wood struck out on a sacrifice bunt attempt and Rollins popped up, stranding Pederson and keeping the game tied at 1-1.

Maikel Franco nearly gave the Phillies a lead in the bottom of the sixth, but his deep fly ball was caught on the warning track in left field. Following a Jeff Francoeur one-out single, Wood collected his eighth strikeout of the night by getting Ryan Howard to chase a pitch low and away.

Darin Ruf extended the inning with a base hit by a diving Guerrero before Wood managed to get out of the inning by fielding his position on a little tapper hit to his left. Jeanmar Gomez replaced De Fratus in the seventh and worked around a Gonzalez one-out single to toss a scoreless inning of relief.

Ruiz poked a single by Kendrick’s diving attempt to lead off the bottom of the seventh. The Phillies catcher then stopped short of Kendrick’s tag on a slow roller, and made it to second base after Kendrick threw to first. Cesar Hernandez was intentionally walked and both runners advanced on a balk due to the ball slipping from Wood’s hand on his delivery.

Herrera wound up drawing a walk and Joel Peralta came on in relief with one out and the bases loaded. After missing a home run earlier in the game, Franco got enough of a hanging breaking ball for a grand slam that gave the Phillies a 5-1 lead.

With two outs in the eighth and runners on the corners, Carl Crawford delivered with a pinch-hit RBI single. Representing the tying run, Rollins worked a full count before getting called out on strikes to end the inning with the Dodgers trailing 5-2.

Luis Avilan made his Dodgers debut in the bottom of the eighth and allowed the Phillies to add to their lead. Freddy Galvis drew a one-out walk and easily stole second base soon after as Yasmani Grandal’s throw sailed into center field.

Galvis then came around to score with two outs on Domonic Brown’s RBI single that easily rolled into left field with the Dodgers shifted for him to pull. The Dodgers had two runners reach in the ninth, but were unable to cut into their deficit and lost, 6-2. With the win the Phillise improved to 13-3 since the All-Star break.

[divide]

Clayton Kershaw PingPong4Purpose Charity Event

Previous page 1 2

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button