The Los Angeles Dodgers took an early lead on Noah Syndergaard but their offense went quiet and Caleb Ferguson couldn’t help bail Bobby Miller out of trouble in an eventual 8-3 loss.
Mookie Betts immediately extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a leadoff single and he stole second base right after. Will Smith then put the Dodgers ahead with a two-run homer off his former teammate.
After Betts walked in the third inning and stole his second base of the game, Freddie Freeman ended a 10-pitch at-bat with an RBI single.
Syndergaard managed to keep the Dodgers at bay from that point on to get through six innings for a quality start.
Syndergaard’s outing was initially bested by Miller turning in the longest start of his career. Despite Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saying the team had a rough plan to manage his workload moving forward, Miller got through 6.1 innings on 97 pitches.
He benefitted from being efficient early before running into trouble during a 30-pitch fourth inning. That saw Oscar Gonzalez hit a solo home run and Gabriel Arias add an RBI single to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 3-2.
Miller settled in after that before running into more traffic in the sixth. He quickly retired the leadoff hitter, then allowed a single and issued a walk.
Ferguson retired the first batter faced but the Guardians then strung three consecutive hits together. The stretch culminated with Kole Calhoun ambushing the first pitch he saw for a three-run home run that broke the game open.
Although Calhoun never played for the Dodgers like Syndergaard did, he spent time with Triple-A Oklahoma City prior to getting traded to the Guardians.
Cleveland scored an insurance run off Bryan Hudson in the eighth inning. All eight of their runs came with two outs.
Dodgers lineup woes
The bottom six batters in the Dodgers lineup went a combined 2-for-21. Miguel Rojas had their first hit, a leadoff single in the eighth inning. Max Muncy led off the ninth with an infield single.
Michael Busch went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his first game since getting recalled with J.D. Martinez going on the 10-day injured list due to left groin tightness.
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