The Los Angeles Dodgers came out of the All-Star break in impressive fashion, setting a season high with 18 hits and their 13 runs the second-most scored in a single game in 2016. However, the Dodgers, and Arizona Diamondbacks for that matter, hit the skids Saturday night.
Los Angeles took a 1-0 lead on Justin Turner’s RBI single in the third inning, which held as the only run scored in the game until the bottom of the ninth. Kenley Jansen allowed a one-out single to Michael Bourn, who scored two batters later on Jake Lamb’s double to left-center field.
The blown save was Jansen’s fourth this season and while he’ll take plenty of blame, the Dodgers offense didn’t do Brandon McCarthy or the ensuing relievers any favors.
On top of going 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position, the Dodgers ran into multiple outs. That was a point of contention for manager Dave Roberts after his club’s extra-innings loss, per Jake Rill and Ken Gurnick:
“We try not to give teams extra outs and give away outs on the bases, and tonight there were too many outs we gave away,” Roberts said. “Slyke was trying to be aggressive and got too far out there. With Corey, the ball was in front but Ahmed first was behind him and to the left, and he floated back to the other side when the pitcher came set and he lost track of him. The caught stealing with Yasiel, 3-2 pitch, I wanted [batter Andrew Toles] to put ball in play, he got rung up on a ball that was borderline, but that was a chance I wanted to take to put guys in motion.”
It began with Yasiel Puig being easily caught stealing as part of a strike ’em out, throw ’em out in the eighth inning. Then in the 11th, Scott Van Slyke was picked off first base by Diamondbacks catcher Welington Castillo with Chase Utley at the plate.
However, arguably the most costly blunder came in the 12th inning when Corey Seager ran into an out after his leadoff double. Seager lost track of where Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed position himself and attempted to advance to third base on a grounder that was hit just to Ahmed’s right.
Collectively the Dodgers have been more aggressive on the bases this season, which in turn has come with costly mistakes on occasion. Puig was at the center of poor baserunning on May 22 when he failed to advance on A.J. Ellis’ sacrifice bunt attempt in a game that went 17 innings.
One month prior to that, Yasmani Grandal and Roberts both voiced their support of Puig’s baserunning style. Meanwhile, Utley has been routinely praised for his hard-nose and savvy tactics on the bases, and used as an example by coaches in meetings.
