The Los Angeles Dodgers entered their Father’s Day matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers with a worst-case scenario earning a split in the four-game series. However, a loss would drop them to 7.5 games back of the San Francisco Giants for first place in the National League West.
Milwaukee took a 1-0 lead in the first inning behind Scooter Gennett’s home run. Chase Utley led off the bottom of the first with a base hit, which was followed by a Corey Seager double. After Justin Turner struck out on a high fastball, Adrian Gonzalez was jammed on a shallow fly ball to left.
Ryan Braun made a basket catch on the run, and easily threw Utley out at home to end the inning on a double play. While it initially appeared Utley made a poor decision, Seager presumably got a bad read or lost track of the outs and was more than halfway to third base, which essentially forced Utley to attempt tagging.
Maeda labored a bit through the second, issuing a pair of walks before getting out of the inning without allowing a run. However, he’d thrown 46 pitches to that point.
Matt Garza retired the Dodgers in order in the bottom of the second. Braun found the left-center field gap for a two-out double in the third inning. Chris Carter extended the inning with a walk, but Aaron Hill struck out to strand both runners.
Maeda reached with one out in the bottom of the third on a Garza error. Seager pulled a single into right field, but Maeda was thrown out trying to go first to third base, which ended the inning.
His effort to run the bases didn’t have much of an effect on Maeda as he struck out the side in the fourth. Garza retired Turner, Gonzalez and Thompson in order in the bottom half of the inning on an efficient 12 pitches.
Garza’s soft grounder found a hole between Gonzalez and Utley for a leadoff single in the fifth. Nothing would come of it however, as Jonathan Villar hit into a 3-6 double play, and Gennett rolled a grounder over to first base.
Howie Kendrick singled in the fifth and A.J. Ellis was hit by a pitch to put two on with one out. Maeda’s sacrifice bunt advanced both runners but they were stranded. Braun led off the sixth inning with a bloop single into no-man’s land, only to be thrown out by Kendrick attempting to stretch it to a double.
Maeda then struck out the next two batters faced to keep the Dodgers within one run of the Brewers. Any thoughts of Turner’s base hit to right sparking a rally in the bottom of the sixth were quickly erased as Gonzalez grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Maeda gave up a pair of singles in the seventh and exited with one out and runners on first and second base. He finished with eight strikeouts and matched a career high with 107 pitches. Pedro Baez fielded a Jonathan Lucroy comebacker to start a 1-6-3 double play.
The Dodgers finally managed to break through in the eighth inning, with Kiké Hernandez tying the game on a pinch-hit solo home run. Kenley Jansen picked up one strikeout as he retired the Brewers in order in the ninth.
Gonzalez and Thompson combined for back-to-back base hits with one out in the bottom half of the inning. Scott Van Slyke pinch-ran for Gonzalez and represented the winning run at second base. After Kendrick worked a two-out walk to load the bases, Yasmani Grandal pinch-hit for Ellis and drew a walk to bring in the winning run.
