Clayton Kershaw’s streak of 37 consecutive innings ended in Friday night’s 5-4 loss when the Los Angeles Dodgers ace gave up a leadoff homer to Pittsburgh’s Gregory Polanco.
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The hit came while Francisco Cervelli and Neil Walker were on base, accumulating three runs for the Pirates to put them up 4-2 over the Dodgers at the time. The Pirates have scored 18 runs in their last three games and four or more runs in seven of their last 10 games. “They did a good job battling me the whole night, and I just didn’t really have good stuff”.
“That’s like Haley’s Comet”, said Hurdle. “I always kid him: Can I see a home run in my lifetime?”
The National League is out to prove that the American League doesn’t get to have all the fun when it comes to big time homers.
It would seem that I am bad luck to Dodgers pitchers and their scoreless innings streak.
After Trout was serenaded with a birthday song from the Angel Stadium outfield crowd in the first inning, the reigning AL MVP celebrated his 24th birthday by drilling his major league-leading 33rd homer. Andrew McCutchen is 13-for-29 with nine RBIs over his last nine games for Pittsburgh, which has won four of its last five to move 3 1/2 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs for the first NL wild card spot.
Switch hitter Jimmy Rollins, hitting.340/.407/.642 overall in his last 14 games, including 3-for-4 with a walk on Friday, is hitting.308/.357/.462 in 71 plate appearances as a right-handed batter in 2015.
The Dodgers used a single by Howie Kendrick and an RBI double by Scott Van Slyke to steal a run off Pirates closer Mark Melancon.
Puig grounded to third and Sean Rodriguez foot appeared to lift off the bag when he stretched from Jung Ho Kang and Puig was called safe. Melancon finally managed to whiff Yasmani Grandal to end it.
“It’ll be that day, or within a day or two of that”, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. The team have two more games this weekend and then they will play in the middle of September for games in LA. Holding the red-hot Dodgers line-up to 2 runs will be a test, and even that may not be enough with Kershaw on the other side.
DETROIT – David Ortiz hit a two-run homer and Hanley Ramirez and Xander Bogaerts each smacked a two-run double to lead Boston over Detroit.
Dodgers vs Pirates 2015 (live score results below) heats up game two of the series today August 8, 2015.
Since he returned from the disabled list on June 13, Latos owned a 2.79 ERA over 51 2-3 innings entering his start Saturday in Pittsburgh. It was a smart approach, Hurdle said – swing early against a pitcher with impeccable control and a tendency to fire fastballs to get ahead in the count. “He had a really clean outing and he got better and stronger as it went on”.
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Right-hander Mat Latos (4-8) was tagged for six runs and seven hits in four innings in his second start for the Dodgers since a July 30 trade with the Miami Marlins that also included the Atlanta Braves. His ability to cover the whole plate and spoil pitches has been on display, and since the start of July, he’s walked 16 times against only 22 strikeouts.
