The Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics met Thursday afternoon at Hohokam Park for their lone matchup this spring. Kenta Maeda and Rich Hill both made their second starts, but were coming off different results in their respective first outings.
Hill quickly retired the first two batters of the game, only for the Dodgers to mount a two-out rally. It was aided in large part by Hill, as the left-hander issued consecutive walks to Chase Utley, Scott Van Slyke and Andre Ethier to load the bases.
A.J. Ellis’ bases-clearing double gave the Dodgers an early 3-0 lead. Trayce Thompson then followed with a two-run home run. Maeda fielded a comebacker after it struck his leg, and made the toss to complete the play at first base for the out.
Josh Reddick drew a walk after Chris Coghlan struck out, but he was stranded as Danny Valencia grounded out.
Rico Noel led off the second inning with a triple and scored on Carl Crawford’s sacrifice fly to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 6-0. Maeda allowed a two-out base hit and collected two more strikeouts in a scoreless bottom of the second.
Hill’s troubles continued in the third as Van Slyke hit a leadoff triple that nearly cleared the center field fence. Ethier’s sacrifice fly easily scored Van Slyke. Ellis improved to 2-for-2 on the day with his second double, which also knocked Hill out of the game after just 1.1 innings pitched.
Maeda worked around Coghlan’s two-out single and Josh Reddick walk to throw a third shutout inning. The Japanese native allowed two hits, walked three and had three strikeouts in another solid outing for the Dodgers.
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