Andre Ethier was back in the lineup for the first time since March 6, Rob Segedin made his first start after returning from the World Baseball Classic, and their presence was immediately felt in the Los Angeles Dodgers victory over the Chicago White Sox.
Chase Utley singled with one out in the first inning, so too did Ethier, and Trayce Thompson followed with an RBI base hit to give the Dodgers an early lead. Segedin’s solo homer extended the lead in the second inning, and Ethier’s RBI double pushed it 3-0 in the third.
Meanwhile, Kenta Maeda turned in what was arguably his best start of the spring. The White Sox did have at least one runner reach in each of the first three innings, though had nothing to show for it.
Maeda erased a leadoff base hit in the bottom of the first by inducing a double play. Cody Asche was stranded after drawing a two-out walk in the second, and so too was Jacob May following a two-out double in the third.
The Dodgers’ streak of scoring came to an end in the fourth despite Segedin reaching on an error and Bobby Wilson being hit by a pitch. Jose Abreu, Todd Frazier and Avisail Garcia went down in order in the bottom half of the inning.
To that point the trio was a combined 0-for-6 with one strikeout against Maeda on the afternoon. Carson Fulmer’s day of work came to an end after four innings. His three runs allowed on five hits was much different than the young right-hander’s first start against the Dodgers this year, when he turned in two scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
White Sox left-handed reliever Jace Fry promptly allowed a leadoff single to Joc Pederson, threw threw a wild pitch, then gave up an RBI double to Utley. Jake Petricka replaced Fry and proceeded to allow an RBI single to Cody Bellinger and two-run double to Segedin.
Maeda ran into some trouble in the bottom of the fifth, beginning with an Asche leadoff double. Yolmer Sanchez’s single put runners on the corners with one out, and the White Sox scratched on a Jose Miguel Fernandez’s poor throw after fielding a grounder.
That marked the end of the road for Maeda, who threw 73 pitches in 4.1 innings. He exited with two runners on, though Josh Fields stranded both, and Maeda was charged with just the one run on five hits.
Bobby Wilson and Brett Eibner both homered in the sixth inning to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 10-1. O’Koyea Dickson and Darnell Sweeney hit ground-rule doubles in the seventh, with Sweeney’s scoring Dixon.
Chris Hatcher started the bottom of the seventh with a strikeout but after Roberto Peña reached on a Sweeney throwing error, Hatcher allowed three straight base hits. Madison Younginer replaced Hatcher with two outs and saw runs come across on a pair of singles prior to ending the inning.
Dickson offset half of the runs Hatcher and Younginer allowed by hitting a two-run homer in the eighth to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 13-5. The White Sox scored two runs in the bottom of the inning, ultimately suffering a 13-7 drubbing.
