The Los Angeles Dodgers looked to avoid being swept by the Miami Marlins in their four-game series, with Thursday’s game marking the first time fellow countrymen Kenta Maeda and Ichiro Suzuki faced one another.
Prior to reaching that point, Maeda gave up a one-out double to Martin Prado. However the right-hander successfully tackled the daunting task of facing Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton to put a scoreless first inning in the books.
Jose Fernandez quickly found himself in trouble in the bottom half of the first, giving up a leadoff single to Chase Utley and walking Corey Seager to put two on with none out. After Adrian Gonzalez struck out, Yasmani Grandal drove an RBI double to center field.
Yasiel Puig drove in another run on a jam shot that landed behind the mound. Carl Crawford grounded into an inning-ending double play, but the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead to the second inning.
Maeda recorded back-to-back strikeouts in the second frame, the second of which was Ichiro, who went down on an off-balance swing. However, J.T. Realmuto cut the Dodgers’ lead in half with a line-drive home run to right-center field.
Maeda worked around a two-out single in the third, ending the inning by collecting his third strikeout of the game. Utley drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third and went first to third base on Seager’s base hit to center.
However, both runners were stranded as Fernandez struck out the side — Gonzalez, Grandal and Puig. Maeda struck out Stanton swinging to open the fourth. Justin Bour then drew a walk, but was stranded by Suzuki and Realmuto.
CONTINUE READING: Pedro Baez has forgetful sequence in seventh inning, rally falls short
