The Los Angeles Dodgers began the second half of their season by hosting the Boston Red Sox, and some late inning heroics from Freddie Freeman earned them a 4-1 victory.
Their offense struggled throughout the majority of the game as they continued their recent trend. They went 15 consecutive innings without scoring dating back to their last game against the Detroit Tigers.
But that changed in the eighth inning when Freddie Freeman blasted his seventh career grand slam, and fourth with the Dodgers, to give them a 4-1 lead. The inning was set up by a walk to Miguel Vargas, a double from Shohei Ohtani and an intentional walk to Will Smith that loaded the bases for Freeman.
Prior to that point, the Dodgers were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left three runners on base.
Nick Pivetta threw six scoreless innings before exiting the game, striking out eight and allowing just two hits.
Gavin Stone got back on track with a solid outing, but it wasn’t necessarily an ideal start. Stone dealt with baserunners throughout the game and and only struck out three hitters.
He was fortunate enough to get out of a few jams and kept the Red Sox off the board each time. Unfortunately, he did allow a run in the fifth inning when Jarren Duran homered to put the Red Sox up 1-0.
Still, after Stone had thrown a total of just 7.2 innings over his previous two starts while allowing eight runs, his outing tonight of five runs with just one run allowed was a pleasant sight to see.
Daniel Hudson ended up earning the save, while Anthony Banda, Alex Vesia and Ryan Yarbrough each worked a scoreless inning.
The Red Sox also had trouble with runners in scoring position as they went 0-for-11 in those situations and left six runners stranded on base.
Dodgers need consistency in starting rotation
In the last month alone, the Dodgers have lost Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Walker Buehler, who are now sidelined with the likes of Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin and Emmet Sheehan.
Yamamoto’s injury in particular has been difficult to absorb as he had been one of the Dodgers’ best starters this season. They have been able to tread water without the aforementioned names, but manager Dave Roberts is hoping to get more consistency from the starting staff.
The good news is Tyler Glasnow is set to return next week.
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
