Greinke didn’t turn into the Incredible Hulk, but he did turn into Zack Greinke, the baseball player, and that was enough to help carry the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 10-8 win at Citizens Bank Park. Their Pennsylvania road trip continues Friday with the first of three games against the Pirates. Against a team like the Phillies, you can sometimes get away with that, but leaving the bases loaded and scoring no runs in three consecutive innings won’t cut it down the stretch.
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Rollins received a warm welcome in pre-game introductions and a louder ovation when he led off the game. The shortstop tipped his hat to the crowd in gratitude before stepping into the box. “It was a great moment”.
“We were just capitalizing on mistakes”, Brown said.
“The last pitch, he hit his spot”. “I think a lot of people around me, I know for sure, they’ve been excited and they are excited”.
Gonzalez connected for his 22nd homer in the second to put the Dodgers ahead 6-5. That was an exciting time of growth for Phillies baseball… and by the way, this current group of mostly young survivors of the purge have won 13 of 16 games since the All-Star break.
“That’s something we’ve been harping on for three or four years now”, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of his team’s baserunning mistakes.
Greinke, whom second baseman Howie Kendrick called an “all-around athlete”, starred at the plate, going 3-for-3 with three runs scored and his fifth career home run, which was accompanied by an exaggerated bat flip.
The Phillies would come back, after an RBI double by Maikel Franco in the third, Jeff Franceour belted a two-run blast off new Dodgers setup man Jim Johnson in the bottom of the eighth to shrink LA’s lead to one.
Thompson would pitch seven innings, allowing just one run while scattering six hits.
“He’s the best defensive pitcher in the game, in my opinion”, Grandal said. Los Angeles has an eye for the strike zone, ranking 3.4 in the NL with second walks per game. As the pitch was also ball four on Herrera, he moved to first base. He’s only struck out five more batters than he’s walked this season, so (notice the common theme of this series), the Dodgers SHOULD be able to beat up on him. Wood led off the third with a single and Rollins followed with a ground-rule double down the right-field line. They won the game after all three of those losses.
Pinch-hitter Carl Crawford had an RBI double for the Dodgers in the eighth.
That streak ended abruptly and spectacularly on Thursday afternoon, with the first five Phillies all scoring, punctuated by a three-run home run by Domonic Brown.
Rollins has reached safely in 10 of 11 games and his batting.
Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler, a first-round selection (24th overall) in the amateur draft in June, will have Tommy John surgery on Wednesday.
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“I hadn’t pitched in a while and the velocity was probably the best it’s been all year”, said Anderson, who missed a start because the Dodgers had two off-days last week. He lost his only start against the Phillies on July 7. While he was far from that on Thursday, he did show proficiency with the bat in the Dodgers’ slugging victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Phillies OF Cody Asche returned to the lineup after coming off the bench the previous two games of the series against left-handed starters….
