The Los Angeles Dodgers had no ill-effects from the Blue Diamond Gala last night as they opened their series against the Atlanta Braves with a 4-3 victory in extra innings.
Although the game ended in a walk-off, the story of the night was the starting pitching, as both sides had their starters turn in strong outings. For the Dodgers, Gavin Stone was highly-effective for the second-consecutive outing.
Stone pitched six innings, giving up just one run on five hits, while striking out five and walking one. He has now thrown 13 innings total across his last two starts while allowing just two runs and striking out seven.
The Dodgers would still like to see more swing and miss from the right-hander, but he seems to be settling into his role nicely at the back end of their rotation.
On the other side, Charlie Morton was almost as impressive, but he allowed two runs over his six innings, giving up five hits with two walks and adding five strikeouts.
Although the Dodgers came out on top, it was the Braves that got on the board first, which came in the top of the first inning when Austin Riley hit a solo home run. Thankfully for the Dodgers, Stone had picked off Ronald Acuña Jr. at second base just before the pitch.
In the third inning, Shohei Ohtani walked and stole second base before Will Smith singled him home to tie the game. Smith has continued to put up elite offensive numbers as he's driven in 25 runs.
The Dodgers took the lead in the fourth inning when Teoscar Hernández hit his seventh home run of the season, this time a solo shot. However, the Braves tied the game with a solo homer from Ronald Acuña Jr. against Daniel Hudson in the 8th inning.
The game went to extra innings and the Braves scored their free runner against Alex Vesia. However, the Dodgers came back to tie the game on a single from Shohei Ohtani to score Chris Taylor, who was pinch-running.
Michael Grove pitched the 11th without allowing the ghost runner to score, and the Dodgers walked off with a single from Andy Pages, who had four hits in the game.
Earlier in the game, the Dodgers had a chance to score the game-tying run in the second inning, but a great defensive play by the Braves shut that down. With two on and two out, Gavin Lux singled to left field, and as Andy Pages attempted to score from second, Jared Kelenic threw a laser to home plate to stop the run from scoring.
Dodgers win hit by pitch challenge
After Stone, Joe Kelly took over in the seventh. It appeared he hit the first batter he faced, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts challenged the call while Travis D'Arnaud was getting checked on by trainers.
The call was overturned, and Kelly went on to pitch a 1-2-3 inning.
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