The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped their second straight game to the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night, falling 3-1 at Dodger Stadium.
A Dodgers starter turned in a solid performance for a second consecutive game but the offense struggled, getting just one runner into scoring position in the nine innings. Kenta Maeda tossed seven innings while giving up five hits and three runs (two earned).
He finished with nine strikeouts compared to just two walks. This was Maeda’s fourth start since returning from a hip injury that required a stint on the 10-day disabled list.
Maeda claimed he is finally at the point where he is not feeling pain in the hip while he pitches, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“There’s no problem [with the hip] in terms of pitching in game situation. It’s hard to tell on baserunning, since I haven’t exactly been tested there yet. Hitting I’m still not there yet.”
Overall on the season, Maeda is now 5-5 with a 3.36 ERA and 1.28 WHIP and is striking out hitters at a career-high rate. He has 89 strikeouts compared to just 29 walks in 75 innings across 15 games (14 starts).
Maeda is not the only Dodgers starter who is finally starting to get healthy, with both Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill turning in solid performance their last time out and saying that they came out of it feeling healthy.
Once Walker Buehler returns from the disabled list, the Dodgers could decide to go to a six-man rotation at least for a short period of time, which should benefit Maeda in particular as he has pitched well with extra rest in the past.
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