The Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Sunday afternoon looking to earn a Freeway Series victory and head into the All-Star break on a high note by propelling into first place in the National League West.
With ace Clayton Kershaw on the mound, the Dodgers liked their chances of coming away with a win, and they were able to do exactly that by defeating the Angels, 5-3.
Perhaps one of the biggest hits of the Dodgers season came in the bottom of the seventh when Kiké Hernandez went deep to break up a 3-3 tied, propelling the Dodgers to the victory.
The Dodgers offense gave Kershaw some early run support by scoring three runs in the second inning. Yasmani Grandal launched his 13th home run of the season to right to get things started.
Hernandez then hit a sacrifice fly to score Andrew Toles, and then Kershaw got in on the action himself with a two-out RBI-single to right, scoring Chris Taylor. Historically, three runs of support is more than enough for Kershaw, although that wasn’t the case on Sunday.
Things were not easy for Kershaw from the get-go as he walked two in the first and wound up throwing 29 pitches, although he was able to escape a bases load jam.
He ran into more trouble in the fourth when he gave up back-to-back singles to begin the inning. Jefry Marte then launched a three-run home run to left-center that barely got over the wall to tie the game at three.
Kershaw settled in from there though and was able to pitch into the seventh inning for the first time since April, before he injured both his arm and back.
He gave up two walks in the seventh inning, including one to Mike Trout before giving way to Kenta Maeda with two outs. Maeda, who is usually a starter but was available out of the bullpen this weekend with the All-Star break coming up, plunked Justin Upton on the first pitch he threw to load up the bases. He then struck out Ian Kinsler to escape the jam though, keeping the game tied at three.
After Hernandez hit the go-ahead home run in the bottom of the seventh, Scott Alexander pitched a perfect eighth inning. The Dodgers then added an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI-single by Toles to make it 5-3.
That was more than enough for closer Kenley Jansen, who tossed a scoreless ninth to complete the victory.
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