After losing the opener of a four-game series with the Miami Marlins, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked to rebound against former manager Don Mattingly and his club with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. Miami countered with right-hander Tom Koehler.
Kershaw was on the hill for his fifth start of the season, but his first with Yasmani Grandal as catcher. Grandal did catch Kershaw for one inning in his previous outing after entering as a pinch-hitter. Kershaw was flawless in the first, striking out one and ending the inning by knocking down a comebacker off the bat of Christian Yelich then recovering to throw him out.
Koehler struggle with his command in the bottom half, walking Chase Utley to start the game, and Justin Turner with one out. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, and they took an extra base as J.T. Realmuto’s throw to third base got away and rolled into the camera well.
Koehler then walked Gonzalez to put runners on the corners for Yasiel Puig. A second wild pitch scored another run and the Dodgers led 2-0 after the first despite not collecting so much as one hit.
Marcell Ozuna hit a one-out triple to left-center field with one out in the second, but Kershaw then struck out the next two hitters to strand him. The Dodgers got two hits in the second, but were unable to add to their lead as Koehler got two groundouts to end the inning.
Kershaw retired the Marlins in order in both the third and the fourth, giving him eight straight batters retired to that point. Carl Crawford walked in the bottom of the fourth and later scored on Kerhshaw’s RBI double.
CONTINUE READING: Giancarlo Stanton caps off big sixth inning, Dodgers get tying run to plate in ninth
Miami didn’t find any success against Kershaw in the fifth, with Marcell Ozuna, Realmuto and Chris Johnson going down in order. However, the Marlins broke through a bit in the sixth inning, beginning with a Miguel Rojas pinch-hit double with one out.
Dee Gordon hit a chopper back to the mound that went off Kershaw’s knee for an infield single. Martin Prado followed with an RBI line-drive single up the middle to get the Marlins on the board. Yelich’s RBI single cut the Dodgers’ lead to 3-2.
Giancarlo Stanton added to Kershaw’s troubles by clubbing a no-doubt three-run homer to give the Marlins a 5-2 lead. Kershaw ended the inning with a pair of strikeouts to match his season high of 10.
Yasmani Grandal reached on an infield single in the bottom of the sixth, but the inning came to an end on a Joc Pederson drive that was caught at the warning track in center field. Kershaw worked around a Gordon two-out double in the seventh to keep the Marlins lead at 5-3.
Corey Seager kept the bottom of the seventh alive with a two-out single to left field. The Marlins went to reliever Bryan Morris, who retired Turner to end the inning. J.P. Howell took over in the eighth but was promptly removed after giving up a leadoff single to Yelich.
Louis Coleman entered and allowed Yelich to reach second base on a wild pitch. He then tagged on a fly ball to right field as Puig lost track of how many outs were in the inning. Pederson came up empty on a diving catch attempt in shallow center, resulting in a Realmuto RBI single with two outs.
Ichiro Suzuki pinch-hit and slapped a single to left for career hit No. 2,493, moving him into a tie with Frank Robinson for 33rd on the all-time hit lists. Coleman kept the damage to one run by getting Adeiny Hechavarrai to ground out.
Pederson reached on a one-out double in the bottom of the ninth and Utley later drew a walk, but nothing came of it as Seager grounded out and the Dodgers lost to the Marlins, 6-3.