It was a rough start for the potential Cy Young winner in the National League but he finally got some much needed run support from his offense and was able to sneak away with the victory by a score of 10-8. The Rockies were able to get to Kershaw early on in the game as they put up three runs in the first inning to take the lead away from the Dodgers who had put up one run in the top of the inning. The Dodgers got one run back in the third inning on an AJ Ellis RBI single which scored Andre Ethier and made the score 3-2 in favor of the Rockies. The Dodgers took the lead in the fifth inning when they scored three which was highlighted by a two RBI single from Clayton Kershaw. The Rockies immediately answered back in the bottom of the fifth with two runs and tied the game at five. The Dodgers scored three more times in the sixth inning which came in part from a Andre Ethier two run home run deep to right field off of Jeff Manship which pushed their lead to 8-5. The score remained that way until the bottom of the eighth inning when the Rockies scored twice to make it an 8-7 game. Matt Belisle was not able to keep the score a one run game when he came on in the ninth inning. Belisle gave up two more runs to the Dodgers in the ninth and the lead was back up to three heading to the bottom of the ninth. Wilin Rosario led off the ninth inning with a solo home run to right field but that was all the Rockies could muster and lost the game by a final score of 10-8. Clayton Kershaw picked up his 14th victory of the season despite giving up a season high in earned runs with five over five innings of work. Jeff Manship took the loss and is now 0-5 on the year. Kenley Jansen came in and locked down his 25th save of the season.
It was a rough start for Bettis again as he struggled to get outs in the first inning and faced seven batters. He was able to dance out of danger a bit and only allow one run in the inning however. He finished the game going 4 2/3rd innings allowing eight hits, five runs, four walks, and struck out four in the game. It took him 104 pitches and he didnt even make it the full five innings. He was dancing around the zone too much and the Dodgers hitters were waiting him out. He saw a lot of deep counts which also caused the elevated pitch count. Jeff Manship relieved Bettis and did not fair much better as he went 1 1/3rd innings allowing three hits and three runs (two earned). That does not count the two runs that he allowed which he inherited from Bettis when he relieved him in the fifth. A bright spot for the pitching staff today was Jeff Francis. Francis came in and worked the seventh and eighth innings and was fantastic as he did not allow any hitters to reach base and struck out four. Matt Belisle pitched the ninth inning and failed to hold the Rockies within one run as he gave up four hits and two runs.
Offensively the Rockies did very well as they scored eight runs on 18 hits. Every Rockies position player had at least one hit and seven of the eight had multiple hits. The top five in the lineup, Rutledge, LeMahieu, Cuddyer, Rosario, Arenado, all had two hits and scored at least one run, and LeMahieu was the only one that did not have an RBI out of the five. Charlie Blackmon had three hits on the day but grounded out to end the day for the Rockies. It was a questionable move by Walt Weiss when Jordan Pacheco walked to bring the tying run to the plate and he left Charlie Blackmon in to hit and kept Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki on the bench. Blackmon has been swinging the bat well but he does not have the experience that Tulowitzki or Helton have at the end of games. It was a tough call for Weiss to make and he chose to stay with Blackmon and it did not pay off for him.
The Rockies and Dodgers will be back in action tomorrow night for game two of their three game series. Jhoulys Chacin will be tkaing on Ricky Nolasco. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM Mountain time.
No comments:
Post a Comment