The Los Angeles Dodgers had a chance to sweep the Los Angeles Angels in both the season series and the current Freeway Series during their short homestand, but fell short of that in a blowout loss.
Things started poorly for the Dodgers and only got worse as the game went on. Perhaps the only paw-sitive of the game was all the dogs in the stadium for Pups in the Park to distract fans from watching the product on the field.
In total, the Dodgers went 5-1 across the season Freeway Series.
Angels 13, Dodgers 5: key takeaways
Emmet Sheehan forces bullpen day
Emmet Sheehan was on the mound, but managed to pitch just 1.1 innings before he was pulled from the game. The right-hander allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts.
Although his final line score wasn’t a complete disaster from the run prevention aspect, he threw 35 pitches in the second while recording just the one out. That prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to protect his young starter and get him out of the inning before things got worse for him.
Sheehan threw 49 pitches total in his outing before the bullpen took over with the goal of recording 23 outs in the ballgame.
Dodgers bullpen not up to the task
Edgardo Henriquez was the first out of the ‘pen, and he tossed 1.2 scoreless innings to finish off the second and third innings. But from there, things went downhill.
Blake Treinen allowed two runs in his lone inning, Alex Vesia allowed two runs in 0.2 innings, and Jonathan Hernández had the worst outing of them all, allowing six runs in 1.2 innings. The Dodgers trailed by just one run while Hernández was on the mound, but it ended up turning into a blowout.
Kyle Hurt was the final pitcher of the day, allowing one run in 1.1 innings.
Will Smith remains out of lineup
Will Smith was in the original Dodgers lineup on Saturday before being scratched with a stiff neck. Roberts expected Smith to be back in the lineup on Sunday, but he was once again on the bench.
Roberts did not speak with reporters before the game, so the severity of Smith’s neck issue is currently unclear.
With that, Dalton Rushing was in the lineup once again, and he provided most of the offense for the Dodgers. Rushing went 4-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored, which came from his home run in the sixth inning.
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