Jose Urena knew he was on a short leash if he was not only going to finish a personal masterpiece but end the Miami Marlins’ long drought without a complete game.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers own a four-game lead atop the National League West, but it’s no secret they have their eyes on a much bigger prize.
With two down in the eighth, Jeff Francoeur singled off the glove of Dodgers rookie shortstop and MVP candidate Corey Seager to break up the perfecto. Fastball, changeup – [those pitches are] still on the same plane.
“I didn’t watch any of it or read any of it”, Roberts said. “But that’s part of the game”.
The loss was the sixth in seven games for the Dodgers against the Marlins and their former manager, Don Mattingly, this season. We just couldn’t get to him. “If I could throw a complete game, that was something fun for us, and me too”. “I don’t think there should be (anything said) other than the position we’re in is a good one”.
The Dodgers offense was quieted by Jose Urena, dropping their series finale 3-0 to the Marlins on Sunday afternoon in Miami. Bryan Mitchell starts for the Yankees in the 4:05 p.m. PT game, his fifth major league start and second in 2016.
Most significantly, it clinched a much-needed series win to bolster Miami’s diminishing playoff hopes.
The game was well in hand, with the Dodgers leading by five runs and holding a 98.5 percent win expectancy according to FanGraphs. “It was moving a lot, he was getting a lot of ground balls”.
Maeda (14-9) was the loser for Los Angeles, allowing three runs (two earned) on eight hits with one walk and just three strikeouts in six innings. “It’s something he’s working on”. “He had depth on that and the movement was good”.
Along with keeping his other pitches down in the zone, the curve provided a different look that helped hold a unsafe lineup stacked with left-handed hitters at bay. That pushed the right-hander past his previous career high of 6 2/3 innings. “It was a pretty stress-free game for him”.
In St. Louis, Ryan Braun hit a tiebreaking homer in the ninth inning, and the Milwaukee dropped the Cardinals back in the NL wild-card race.
“Looking at it throughout the day, there was a little bit of heat and a little bit of tenderness”, Roberts said. With the trade deadline six weeks in the past, Hill has made a total of three starts. Roberts elected to pull starter Rich Hill after seven absolutely ideal innings. The Dodgers have bigger fish to fry than the Marlins.
No wonder Maeda was determined to lull them to sleep with a steady stream of breaking balls and changeups.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Rich Hill was removed after throwing seven flawless innings against the Miami Marlins in a 5-0 victory Saturday night.
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The initial results were similar for Maeda, who faced the minimum through three innings. The Marlins had their best chance to score in that inning with two runners on and one out. Ichiro Suzuki, Martin Prado, and Yelich hit consecutive singles for the first run and Bour followed with a sacrifice fly. What if he had two twenty pitch innings? In this game against the Marlins, that play was outfielder Yasiel Puig’s diving catch at the warning track to end the seventh inning.
