The Los Angeles Dodgers and Kenta Maeda, or “Maeken,” celebrated the first night of Players Weekend with a x-x win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a three-game series. Logan Forsythe (“Logie Bear”), Yasmani Grandal (“YGR Jr.”) and Yasiel Puig (“Wild Horse”) each collected one RBI.
Maeda went six strong innings and held the Brewers to one run. That came on Domingo Santana’s (“Showmingo”) fly ball in the second inning that kept carrying until it cleared the fence in right field. Maeda retired 11 of the first 12 batters faced, before issuing a pair of two-out walks in the fourth.
He escaped the small jam by inducing Stephen Vogt (“I Believe”) into a pop-up. Maeda collected seven strikeouts on the night and finished his outing by retiring seven batters in a row.
It was the sixth time in Maeda’s last eight starts he allowed one earned run or less. He improved to 12-5 with a 3.76 ERA and avenged a June loss to the Brewers in which Maeda labored through four innings.
The Dodgers had at least one runner reach in each of the first three innings on Chase Anderson (“Texas”), including back-to-back singles by Adrian Gonzalez (“El Titan”) and Puig in the second, but didn’t have anything to show for it.
They finally broke through in the fourth on Forsythe’s game-tying home run. Justin Turner (“RedTurn2”) walked with two outs and single-handedly sparked a rally. He stole second base on the first pitch to Grandal, and then scored the go-ahead run on Grandal’s base hit to center field.
The Dodgers struck again in the bottom of the sixth, on Puig’s leadoff home run. The homer was Puig’s 23rd, which is more than his combined total from the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Tony Cingrani (“Grani”) and Josh Ravin (“El Cuervo”) each threw a scoreless inning to get the ball to Kenley Jansen (“Kenleyfornia”). The action was Jansen’s first since Tuesday, and he retired the side in order to convert his 35th save.
It was not without some brief suspense, as the Dodgers challenged a safe call on Ryan Braun’s (“Ocho”) infield single to end the game. The review took all of 24 seconds. Dodgers pitchers combined to hold the Brewers to just one hit.
