Coming off a weekend sweep of the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked to carry that momentum into their short two-game Interleague series with the Texas Rangers in Arlington.
They were able to do exactly that in the series opener on Tuesday night as the offense had a strong night, resulting in an 8-4 victory.
The Dodgers got the scoring started in the third inning when Manny Machado stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and was able to sneak a groundball up the middle to drive in two. A couple batters later, Brian Dozier hit a single of his own to bring home another run, giving Los Angeles an early 3-0 lead.
Texas responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs off of Dodgers starter Walker Buehler though, scoring twice on two-out singles by Elvis Andrus and Nomar Mazara.
The Rangers did a nice job of making Buehler work, so he was only able to last four innings after throwing 84 pitches. He only allowed the two runs though and left the game with a lead.
It was all Dodgers from there as the offense kept adding to the lead, beginning with two more runs in the fourth on a single by Joc Pederson and sacrifice fly by Machado.
Dozier supplied some offense in the fifth with a solo home run to left, his 20th of the year and fourth since coming over to the Dodgers.
After Turner began the sixth with a double, Machado drove him in with a single to give him four RBI in the game and nine in his last three contests. It didn’t end there though as Cody Bellinger tripled to begin the seventh and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Hernandez, extending the lead to 8-2.
The Dodgers bullpen was flawless in relief of Buehler as Caleb Ferguson, Pedro Baez, Scott Alexander, Pat Veditte combined to toss four scoreless innings to keep the score at 8-2 going into the ninth inning.
Closer Kenley Jansen came in to pitch the ninth to boost his confidence considering he has given up four home runs in his previous three outings since coming off the disabled list. He continued to struggle though, giving up two runs. He made an outstanding behind-the-back play to start a game-ending double play to complete the 8-4 victory though.
