The Boys in Blue have reclaimed their spot at the summit of the standings, achieving this feat thanks to their relief pitching staff managing to avert yet another late-inning stumble.
The Dodgers triumphed over the San Diego Padres by a score of 3-2 in the initial game of their weekend series on Friday, pulling even with their divisional rivals for the lead in the NL West. This victory snapped a four-game losing skid for Los Angeles, a stretch during which they surrendered leads in the eighth or ninth inning in three separate contests.
The Dodgers once again found themselves in danger of a similar scenario unfolding in this particular game. They navigated their way into the latter stages of the contest with a 3-1 advantage, primarily due to a solid performance from starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (who pitched six innings, allowing two hits and one run while recording three strikeouts). However, they encountered renewed difficulties when relief pitcher Alex Vesia hit two batters and issued a walk to load the bases with only one out.
The Padres narrowed the gap to a single run courtesy of a sacrifice fly by Luis Arraez, prompting Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to replace Vesia with Blake Treinen. Treinen then induced a pop fly from Manny Machado on his very first pitch, effectively ending the threat.
The Dodgers have been relying on less-heralded members of their bullpen for several weeks now, and in this game, it manifested in the form of former Cincinnati Reds closer Alexis Diaz taking the mound in the ninth inning. Despite carrying a 7.71 ERA into the game, Diaz appeared surprisingly effective, notching two strikeouts while navigating around a single from Jackson Merrill, who strung together an impressive at-bat.
Roberts once again opted to make a pitching change to secure the final out of the inning, calling upon Jack Dreyer to close out the game, which he accomplished by inducing a fly ball from Ryan O’Hearn.
This is the current formula for the Dodgers to emerge victorious in tight contests: a complete team effort in the middle of August, necessitated by the significant number of their key relief pitchers currently on the injured list. Under different circumstances, Vesia might have been assigned to a less critical situation after allowing runs in three consecutive appearances, but Roberts chose to insert him directly back into a high-leverage spot.
The Dodgers scored their runs during a third-inning rally and via a seventh-inning home run off the bat of the struggling Teoscar Hernández.
With the division standings once again tied, the Dodgers are scheduled to send former Padre Blake Snell to the mound against Dylan Cease on Saturday, followed by Tyler Glasnow against former Dodger Yu Darvish on Sunday. Importantly, they can clinch the season series tiebreaker against the Padres with just one more victory, thanks to their current 5-2 record against them this season.
