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.
CONTINUE READING: Adam Liberatore, Jose De Leon Run Into Trouble
The Dodgers wasted a small opportunity in the fourth as Utley hit a two-out hustle double off Ryan Madson, who then walked Van Slyke. Ethier grounded out to end the inning. Yimi Garcia erased a one-out Billy Butler base hit by inducing an inning-ending double play.
The A’s managed to get on the board in the fifth, behind Bruce Maxwell’s solo home run hit off Adam Liberatore. Jose De Leon entered in the sixth and promptly had his first pitch hit for a solo home run by Valencia.
Kris Davis followed with a double and Butler lined a single off De Leon’s glove. De Leon limited the damage by getting a double play, which scored a run, and a groundout. Sean Manaea worked around a two-out walk to throw a scoreless seventh inning.
After De Leon retired the first two batters faced, Brandon Hicks dropped a pop fly, resulting in a two-out double for Andrew Lambo. Jake Smolinski grounded out and the Dodgers took their 7-3 lead to the eighth inning.
Alex Hassan led off the eighth with a base hit to left field. The single was the Dodgers’ first non-extra-base hit of the game. Hassan later around to score on an error by Athletics third baseman Renato Nunez.
Chris Anderson needed to work himself out of trouble after issuing back-to-back walks in the bottom of the eighth. He kept the A’s off the board by notching a strikeout, force out and foul out. Matt West tossed a scoreless ninth inning and the Dodgers left Mesa with an 8-3 win.