The Dodgers were on the wrong side of history for a while again Sunday.
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Red Sox manager John Farrell can empathize with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts who removed Rich Hill from a flawless game after seven innings at 89 pitches Saturday vs. the Marlins.
Yasiel Puig made it seven.
The fact that Roberts pulled Hill after the seventh shows some solid forward thinking from the first-year manager.
“Maeda is like most Japanese pitchers that like to throw a lot of curve balls”. He gets sink. But his slider hasn’t been a true depth pitch. He’s got a big arm. “You’ve got a guy flirting with history”. “It doesn’t matter how well we’re swinging or what happened yesterday, he threw the ball well”. The cheers were louder when Urena bounded to the dugout after turning in the best performance of his career and one of the best by a Marlins pitcher this season – including that other Jose.
The Baltimore Orioles are only two games behind after an 11-3 thrashing of the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees are one further back following their 5-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. Prado, who scored two runs, is hitting.310 this season.
“He didn’t leave anything over the middle of the plate”, Reddick said. Fastball, changeup – [those pitches are] still on the same plane.
Jose Urena’s birthday is on Monday, but he might have come of age on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Urena was lifted after giving up a base hit to Reddick. In three starts for Los Angeles, Hill has tossed 21 innings, has yet to allow a run, and only allowed one hit over his last two starts (13 innings).
Urena allowed only four hits in his 8.2 innings. He has pitched 19 scoreless innings since joining the Dodgers after an August 1 trade with Oakland. The right-hander struck out four and walked none.
Manager Dave Roberts said: “I feel sick to my stomach. opportunity of a lifetime for Rich”. “I wasn’t feeling all that hot when Johan pitched his no-hitter, I can tell you”. Clayton Kershaw just returned from the DL, and the Dodgers are hoping that with good timing and a little bit of luck, they can make a postseason run with a somewhat healthy rotation. Martin Prado singled advancing Ichiro to second, and then Christian Yelich singled advancing Prado to third and scoring Suzuki to give Miami a 1-0 lead.
Things went downhill from there. Justin Bour also drove in a run.
The Marlins jumped ahead with two runs in the fourth inning.
“Obviously, I didn’t want to come out of the game”, Hill said.
Hill is 36, traded to the Dodgers on August 1 from the Oakland Athletics.
Hill has only made three starts for the Dodgers since being acquired by the team. “I’m going to lose sleep tonight, and I probably should”.
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“My condition wasn’t so good but I was able to hang in there”.
