The Los Angeles Dodgers kept their hot streak going on Tuesday night, slugging out 12 hits and earning a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in their series opener at Tropicana Field.
The win was a rare one for the Dodgers considering they did not hit another hope runs. Nine of their 12 hits were singles. Because of that, the biggest highlight of the night for Los Angeles came on the defensive side of the ball.
With the Dodgers leading 6-3 in the bottom of the eighth, reliever Dylan Floro served up a leadoff double to Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier.
Kiermaier decided to get greedy though and attempted to turn it into a triple, but Dodgers center fielder Alex Verdugo had no interest in letting that happen. He fired a perfect strike to Corey Seager at third base and he put down the tag to get Kiermaier.
Alex. VerduNO. pic.twitter.com/6yXrMkFKHq
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 22, 2019
Offensively, it was a balanced attack for the Dodgers as nine different players recorded hits, five different players drove in runs and five different players scored runs. Cody Bellinger reached in three of his first appearances on a single and two walks to maintain his incredible .404/.487/.783 season slashline.
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw turned in one of his best outings of the season, tying his season-high with eight strikeouts across 6.1 innings. He allowed six hits, two runs and walked one batter to improve to 4-0 on the year. Dating back to last season, the Dodgers have won each of his last 20 regular-season starts.
