With news breaking Tuesday afternoon of Andre Ethier’s tibia fracture, Carl Crawford and Trayce Thompson entered the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup vying for playing time in left field. Meanwhile, Alex Wood made his second start since experiencing tightness in his left forearm.
Crawford, hoping to rebound from a down 2015 season, led off the game by striking out. Chase Utley followed with a bouncer to second and Howie Kendrick struck out swinging in a quick top half of the first for Chris Young.
In the bottom half, after an Alcides Escobar groundout and a Mike Moustakas strikeout, Lorenzo Cain singled up the middle. Eric Hosmer followed with a double down the left field line to give the Royals an early scoring threat.
When Wood uncorked a wild pitch, Cain held at third while Hosmer attempted to advance, leading to a 2-1-4-5 putout to end the inning. The Dodgers led off another inning with a strikeout as Joc Pederson went down swinging.
Kiké Hernandez suffered the same result, but A.J. Ellis drew a walk to break up Young’s perfect game. Thompson swung and missed at a pitch in the dirt to give Young five strikeouts in his first two innings of work.
Wood surrendered a single to Kendrys Morales, who was left at the plate after the Royals’ baserunning gaffe the previous inning. Alex Gordon followed with a bloop single to right, once again giving the Royals a scoring chance.
Wood then balked, allowing the runners to advance to second and third with none out. Salvador Perez grounded out to short, plating the Royals’ first run. Chase Utley fielded a hard-hit ball cleanly, threatening a throw to third to prevent a run, then throwing to first base to record the second out.
Nearly out of trouble, Omar Infante blooped an RBI single into center, scoring Gordon and extending the Royals’ lead to 2-0. Wood ended the inning by striking out Escobar. Rob Segedin led off the third inning with a routine grounder to third, but Moustakas’ errant throw allowed the Dodgers their second baserunner.
CONTINUE READING: Dodgers get tying run to the plate in ninth
Rico Noel followed with a groundball to short, but with Segedin off with the pitch, the Dodgers avoided the double play and had their first runner in scoring position. The lineup turned over, with Crawford drawing a walk to put the tying run on base.
Utley worked a full count before flying out to right field, allowing Segedin to tag and take third. He was stranded however, as Kendrick flied out to right to end the Dodgers’ best scoring threat.
In an effort to beat the shift, Moustakas attempted bunting his way on base to start the bottom of the third, but fouled out. A liner to left off the bat of Cain was snared by Noel, for a quick second out. Hosmer followed with a high-hopper to short to end Wood’s first 1-2-3 inning.
In his own attempt to beat the shift, Pederson grounded a ball toward third base, but Moustakas fielded it cleanly and made a strong enough throw to record the out. Hernandez followed with a popup to first, while Ellis was robbed of knocking the Dodgers’ first hit by a Hosmer diving stop.
After getting two quick outs in the bottom of the fourth, Wood surrendered a solo home run to Perez that pushed the Royals’ lead to 3-0. Thompson led off the fifth with a popup to second. Young then issued a one-out walk and was lifted in favor of Scott Alexander.
The lefty was greeted rudely by Noel, who hit an RBI double off the left-center field wall to drive in the Dodgers’ first run. Noel advanced to third base on a wild pitch and Utley drew a two-out walk, but both runners were stranded as Kendrick struck out swinging for a second time on the night.
Louis Coleman entered in the bottom of the fifth to face his former team. Moustakas singled to center with two outs, but nothing came of it for the Royals. The Dodgers’ bats were quiet once more in the sixth, only getting a one-out base hit from Hernandez.
Adam Liberatore worked around a one-out double and wild pitch to toss a scoreless inning of relief in the bottom of the sixth. During a scoreless seventh and into one the eighth, Pedro Baez struck out all four batters faced.
However, the Dodgers didn’t muster any offense over the final three innings and lost to the Royals, 3-1.