After a quick two-game sweep of the Houston Astros, the Los Angeles Dodgers continued their first road trip of the season with the first of a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night.
Despite the wins over the Astros, the Dodgers’ bats stayed relatively quiet in the series, so it was good to see them break out a bit against Robbie Ray and cruise to a 6-3 victory at Chase Field.
L.A. wasted no time getting on the scoreboard early as Mookie Betts walked to lead off the game and then went first-to-third on a single by Max Muncy. Justin Turner drove in the first run of the night of a sacrifice fly, although he was robbed of extra bases on an outstanding diving catch by Kole Calhoun.
AJ Pollock continued his hot start to the season with a two-run home run against his former team to cap off the three-run first inning, good for his first long ball of the season.
The Dodgers’ other hot bat to begin the season has been Corey Seager, and he also continued that on Thursday with a solo home run to right to lead off the top of the second.
Arizona was able to get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning when Ketel Marte hit a solo home run off Dodgers starter Ross Stripling, cutting their deficit to 4-1. The Dodgers answered back in the top of the fifth though when Pollock doubled to center and then scored on a groundout by Seager, making it 5-1.
They then extended it to 6-1 in the top of the sixth as it was Muncy’s turn to leave the yard, going the opposite way for his third home run of the season.
Stripling was cruising until the sixth inning when he ran into his first trouble off the night by hitting a batter and then allowing an RBI double to Christian Walker. That marked the end of his night after 5.1 innings as Adam Kolarek came in and got the final two outs of the sixth, allowing another run in the process to make it 6-3.
The Dodgers’ bullpen was flawless from there though as Joe Kelly started it off with a perfect seventh in his first inning since being suspended for throwing at the Astros. He is appealing his suspension so is still allowed to pitch for the time being.
Brusdar Graterol followed suit with an eight-pitch, perfect eighth inning, and then Pedro Baez closed it out to earn his first save of the season. Kenley Jansen was unavailable for the Dodgers after pitching in both games in Houston.
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