For a third time in as many nights a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim starting pitcher quieted a Los Angeles Dodgers offense that’s been on a torrid pace throughout the month of June. Cam Bedrosian blew the save opportunity, but the Angels came away with a walk-off victory.
Alex Meyer turned in six shutout innings, allowing just one hit, and collecting four strikeouts. While Meyer kept the Dodgers off the board, he was more effectively wild than dominant. Meyer walked Chase Utley to open the game, and issued two walks in each the second and third innings. The five walks through 3.1 innings matched a season high for Meyer.
The Dodgers were without a hit until Yasmani Grandal led off the fourth with a single. That came a few pitches after Angels manager Mike Scioscia and a trainer went out to check on Meyer, who threw a warmup toss before remaining in the game.
He induced a double play and proceeded to retire the final eight batters faced. Meyer’s night came to an end at 99 pitches.
His effort was largely matched by Hyun-Jin Ryu, who retired the first six batters. The Angels’ first baserunner came on Jefry Marte’s leadoff single in the bottom of the third, which didn’t amount to anything.
Ryu carried his shutout bid into the sixth inning. That included overcoming being struck on his left foot/ankle by an Andrelton Simmons’ line drive in the fourth. Ryu immediately dropped to the ground in pain and was checked on by a trainer.
After some hobbling around and a few warmup throws, he remained in the game to record the final out of the inning. Kole Calhoun’s ground-rule double to start the sixth was nearly stranded, but Simmons struck again, clobbering a two-out, two-run homer to break a scoreless tie.
Consecutive base hits followed, and Ryu gave way to Grant Dayton. He walked the bases loaded then received help from Yasiel Puig on a running catch to track down a fly ball in front of the wall in right field.
Trayce Thompson snapped an 0-for-13 span with the Dodgers this season by turning on a Keynan Middleton fastball for a booming solo home run in the eighth. Middleton may of course be remembered for taunting Cody Bellinger after striking him out Monday night.
Cam Bedrosian had the Dodgers down to their final strike but a hanging curveball was swatted by Yasmani Grandal over the center-field fence for a game-tying home run. But Grandal went from hero to goat in less than 20 minutes.
Ben Revere, who reached on an error with one out, advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. He then scored when Grandal dropped a strike-three pitch, recovered it but threw over Chase Utley’s head at first base, allowing Revere to score the winning run in a 3-2 victory.
