The Los Angeles Dodgers were defeated in heartbreaking fashion once again on Saturday, as San Francisco Giants outfielder Andrew McCutchen hit a three-run, walk-off home run in the 14th inning to earn a 7-5 victory.
Rich Hill got the start on the mound for the Dodgers but only lasted four innings as he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the fifth after throwing 76 pitches. Hill gave up five hits and three earned runs in the outing, striking out six and walking two.
After the loss, Hill expressed disappointment with his command that led to a struggle in putting batters away, via SportsNet LA:
“There were some pitches when we get ahead and it wasn’t so much the lack of execution, just the location and changing some of the locations of some of the pitches when we were ahead 0-2, 1-2 would have been obviously much more beneficial. I think that’s, obviously, my outing a couple times when the game was going on, to be able to see where the mistakes were made, that was definitely where it was.”
Hill was much better in his first outing of the season against the Giants at Dodger Stadium when he tossed six shutout innings in a victory.
So despite Saturday’s outing not being what he wanted it to be, he and the rest of the Dodgers starting rotation is in good shape.
The team’s hitting, however, is not as they went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position in Saturday’s loss. They will look to improve on that Sunday afternoon when Clayton Kershaw squares off against Giants lefty Ty Blach.
