Tony Gonsolin contained a vaunted New York Yankees lineup, and Justin Turner added to his home run tear, lifting the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 2-1 win at Dodger Stadium. It sets the stage for Players Weekend to conclude with a rubber match between the storied franchises.
After opening the game with a walk, Gonsolin settled in to retire the next nine batters faced. The Yankees didn’t have their first hit until Aaron Judge led off the fourth inning by driving a 3-2 fastball over the center field fence for his second home run in as many games.
Gonsolin stranded a two-out walk in the fourth and later worked around a base hit to complete five innings with just the one run allowed. The outing marked the second-longest of Gonsolin’s young career.
He outlasted CC Sabathia by one inning and exited with a lead thanks to Turner’s two-run home run in the third. It came two batters after Gonsolin’s chopper back to the mound hit off Sabathia and rolled into foul territory for a leadoff infield single.
The home run was Turner’s 23rd this season and 13th since the All-Star break.
With the game placed in the hands of the bullpens, the Dodgers leaned on Joe Kelly, Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen as their offense went quiet. Kelly navigated his way through the top of the Yankees’ lineup in a perfect sixth inning and remained in the game to start the seventh.
He allowed a leadoff single, threw a wild pitch and issued a walk with two outs, which led to Baez getting the Dodgers out of the jam. Kelly’s appearance was his longest since going two innings to finish a 9-2 win against the San Francisco Giants on June 19.
Baez was also asked to pitch more than an inning, and he successfully did do so by getting through a 1-2-3 eighth that was punctuated by striking out Judge.
Perhaps fueled by the excitement of facing the Yankees, Jansen bounced back from a blown save to shut the door. His effort was aided by Didi Gregorious twice attempting to reach on a bunt against the shift, only to strike out.
The gifted out loomed large as it was followed by a soft grounder to vacated second base, infield single and overturned call on a fielder’s choice to load the bases with one out. Jansen worked the high-wire act by striking out Mike Tauchman and Gary Sanchez.
