For the second consecutive day the Los Angeles Dodgers were without their projected starting pitcher. This time, it was Ross Stripling who was scratched with the same illness that caused Hyun-Jin Ryu to miss Wednesday’s scheduled outing.
As a result, Manny Bañuelos got the nod in favor of Stripling. The right-hander immediately impressed with two strikeouts in his first inning of work.
Bañuelos would run into some trouble during the second inning, however. He struggled with command and yielded a walk and hit by pitch. Rob Refsnyder then cashed in with an RBI single to give the Indians an early 1-0 lead.
The Dodgers quickly answered back in the bottom half of the frame with a pair of singles to put runners at the corners. Alex Verdugo took advantage of the situation and tied the game with an RBI ground out.
With the score still evened up in the fifth inning, the Dodgers strung together a two-out rally. Following a pair of singles, Chris Taylor contributed one of his own to push the Dodgers ahead, 2-1.
Los Angeles then blew the game open in the seventh, beginning with a DJ Peters leadoff base hit. After Edwin Rios reached on an error, Jake Peter clubbed a three-run home run. Keibert Ruiz and Shawn Zarraga later hit back-to-back two-out RBI singles, extending the Dodgers’ lead to 7-1.
But just as soon as the moved comfortably ahead, the Dodgers squandered it. Edward Paredes allowed the Indians to load the bases with one out in the eighth. Andrew Robinson replaced Paredes, only to give up a two-run single to Vandy Diaz, followed by another two-run base hit to Abraham Almonte.
Cesar Ramos also failed to put the fire out, as he threw a wild pitch, bringing in a run, then surrendered a game-tying single to Francisco Mejia.
After the Dodgers went scoreless in the bottom of the eighth, the Indians tacked on another run in the top of the ninth on a two-out single by Giovanny Urshela to take an 8-7 lead.
The Dodgers could not string together any hits in the bottom of the ninth and wound up losing by that same score to fall to 2-5-1 on the spring.
