Dodgers Bats Wake Up For First Win Of Season

steemsports (80)in #steemsports • 6 years ago

SteemSports Presenter:@mateonav53

SteemSports Editor:@scottybuckets

The Los Angeles Dodgers got their first win of the year over the rival San Francisco Giants on Saturday evening 5-0. Corey Seager sat for the Dodgers under the orders of Manager Dave Roberts and the young catcher Kyle Farmer was assigned to third base. It was only the second start of his career.

In the third game of the new year, the Blue Team called Kento Maeda to the mound to avenge their first two losses while San Francisco fielded Derek Holland. The LA Dodgers lost their first two games of the season on two swift swings of the bat by San Francisco leadoff man Joe Panik. They had incredible outings from pitchers Clayton Kershaw and Alex Wood, but their dormant offense squandered every opportunity to win. The team is still hung-over from going all the way to Game 7 of the World Series and falling short. Now they're at the start of a brand new season and know how much time and effort it will take to get back to the promised land.

After an efficient first inning pitched by Maeda, Kike Hernandez Hulk-Smashed a double into deep right center. The outfield pavilion jolted to their feet ready to explode for a home run, but alas it was only a double. It was their first extra base hit of the year, however. We had runners on third(Chris Taylor) and second(Kike Hernandez). Yasiel Puig stepped up next with a chance to score the first RBI of the season and drove the ball to right center for a Chris Taylor tag-up at third. The Dodgers finally scored their first run of the year! Immediately after, Matt Kemp slapped the first pitch he saw right at the feet of Center Fielder Gregor Blanco for their second score of the game. Dodgers were up 2-0 heading into the second inning.

Kento Maeda surrendered a couple two-out hits to Hunter Pence and Gregor Blanco, but he got out of the jam by striking out the pitcher Derek Holland. The Giants started another two-out rally in the third by getting runners onto first and second, but Maeda silenced them with a strikeout on Evan Longoria. His control was looking decent, but he was leaving the ball a little high which resulted in all the San Fran hits. His fastball had a tad more velocity than Kershaw's on Opening Day (91-93 for Maeda vs. 89-91 for Kershaw).

Chris Taylor hit a standing triple to right field in the bottom of the third thanks to Andrew McCutchen's missed diving catch. Kike Hernandez brought Taylor home the next play on a sac-fly to bring it to 3-0 Dodgers. In the fourth inning, the Giants started making some serious mistakes. First, Cody Bellinger got an extra base off a bad pickoff by the pitcher Derek Holland. After that, he gave up a two-out walk to Austin Barnes. With runners on first and second, new Dodger started Kyle Farmer lifted an easy fly ball to right-center, but Andrew McCutchen and Gregor Blanco miscommunicated and let it bounce off their gloves which scored two more Dodger runs. It was 5-0 after four.

Maeda pitched 5 innings with 10 K's and one walk and didn't give up any runs. Another solid outing from a Dodger pitcher, but this time he had some run support. The Giants accumulated a steady stream of hits, but never ended up capitalizing on anything. The Dodger relievers took care of business and LA walked away with its first win of the 2018 season. Rich Hill the Dodger lefty is set to take on Chris Stratton on Easter Sunday afternoon for the final game of the series at 5:37 PM PST / 8:37 PM EST. The Giants won only three series out of 26 last year, but if they win tomorrow they'll get a series win on their first crack of the season.

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