Eduardo Rodriguez did not respond to multiple former teammates upon blocking a trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the deadline, including J.D. Martinez, who hit two home runs in an 8-3 win against the Detroit Tigers.
Martinez’s first homer was a line drive to the opposite field that put the Dodgers up 1-0 in the second inning. Rodriguez ran into trouble in the third as the Dodgers loaded the bases and initially added onto their lead behind Will Smith’s sacrifice fly.
Smith is working to come out of a post-All-Star-break slump and find a rhythm with his swing after playing through a broken rib for multiple months. Smith fouled off eight pitches in the plate appearance, of which six were in a row before driving in a run.
Martinez then added onto Rodriguez’s troubles with a three-run homer. That gave Martinez 22 career multi-home run games, including four in his first season with the Dodgers.
Rodriguez pitched into the fourth inning before coming out of the game with an apparent injury after allowing a leadoff single to Max Muncy.
While Martinez’s second home run of the game provided the Dodgers with a comfortable cushion, it wound up looming all the more key as it prevented them from facing a deficit.
Lance Lynn saw improvement in missing bats and had six strikeouts through four scoreless innings. But some of the encouraging results were wiped away when Lynn surrendered a three-run homer with two outs in the fifth. Lynn has now given up an MLB-worst 42 home runs that also rank ninth-most all-time in a single season.
That wound up being his final inning of work, which meshed with what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said prior to game of the team wanting Lynn to be more assertive early on rather than pacing to pitch deep into a start.
The Dodgers bullpen followed Lynn with scoreless work, and they were provided insurance by Kiké Hernández on an RBI single, Miguel Rojas home run and Martinez base hit that scored Freddie Freeman.
That was set up in part by Freeman stealing his 20th base of the season. Freeman became the first Dodgers first baseman in franchise history with at least 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in one season.
Dodgers magic number
The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the No. 2 seed in the National League postseason bracket is now down to four. However, the Dodgers also remain alive for the best record in baseball as well due to the Atlanta Braves being on four-game losing streak.
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