The Los Angeles Dodgers came back to Southern California to take on the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim on Friday. Since the Angels are in the AL West cellar, the Dodgers are looking to turn their recent skid around. The Dodgers were in a good place to use the Angels as a springboard starting on Friday evening. They want to build momentum heading back home to take on the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks next week. If that was their plan, then plans have changed. The plan should now be to start building that momentum starting Saturday evening because they dropped Friday’s game 9-2. The Dodger struggles have continued at the plate, and, on the mound.
A lot of the Dodger struggles can be attributed to injuries and the side effects of those injuries. Side effects such as rookies being asked to shoulder a lot more than they may be ready for. Also, veterans trying too hard at the plate to make things happen. The Dodgers have had 17 IL placements so far this year, which hurts, especially when A.J. Pollock left Friday’s game with an apparent hamstring injury. This looks likely to be the 18th and is not what the Dodgers needed right now. In fact, it is the exact opposite.
Pitching on Friday
Julio Urias clearly did not have his best stuff on Friday. He still went five, but he had a rough second inning, giving up two solo home runs and two more runs on top of them. Through his five innings Friday night, he gave up five runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and no walks. He also hit a batter. Joe Kelly then came in to pitch the sixth in his season debut. This did not go as well as anticipated. Kelly was only able to get two outs before Edwin Uceta came in to pick him up. This short outing was due to the fact that Kelly gave up four runs on five hits. Uceta was the bright spot on the mound–coming in and completing the rest of the game. He did walk one and strike one out, but no hits or runs in his 2 1/3 innings.
Batting
The Dodgers struggles at the plat continued, however, there were a couple of silver linings. Mookie Betts hit his fourth homer of the season and went 2-4. This is good news because he has been slumping along with most of the other players. Chris Taylor did well, going 2-4, though he was awarded a hit that could have been ruled an error. However, the official scorebook shows 2-4, and that is always good news. The Dodgers did put up eight hits on the night. So, there is some reason for optimism. A.J. Pollock missing time will really hurt if that be the case because he was just heating up. Before he came up limping on what became a Mike Trout triple, he had already smashed a double in the game. The Dodgers will look to turn things around Saturday with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. More news to come on Pollock’s injury.
“Main Photo”
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Players Mentioned:
Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, Chris Taylor, A.J. Pollock, Mookie Betts, Julio Urias, Edwin Uceta, Joe Kelly
