While Alex Wood shook off a rocky first inning, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ defense collapsed in the ninth inning of a loss to the Chicago White Sox. Wood went three innings, allowed one run on three hits and had three strikeouts in his first start of the spring.
A leadoff walk to Adam Engel proved costly as he later scored on Melky Cabrera’s infield single. Wood quickly settled in and induced a grounder and recorded a pair of strikeouts to limit the damage. Following a Scott Van Slyke leadoff walk in the bottom of the second, Bobby Wilson connected for a go-ahead home run.
Wood recorded two quick outs in the third, then worked around a Darnell Sweeney error to complete another scoreless inning. Derek Holland walked Yasiel Puig with two outs in the bottom of the third but it didn’t amount to anything.
Ross Stripling picked up a pair of strikeouts and worked around a base hit to toss a scoreless fourth inning. Stripling found himself in a bases-loaded jam in the fifth after retiring the first two batters.
He escaped the trouble by striking out Matt Davidson, and the Dodgers’ lead held at 2-1. Franklin Gutierrez’s RBI double in the bottom half of the inning extended it. The double was just Gutierrez’s second hit of the spring.
Grant Dayton allowed a two-out base hit in the sixth inning but otherwise struck out the side. O’Koyea Dickson walked and Chris Taylor was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the sixth, but both runners were stranded by Sweeney and D.J. Peters.
Chris Hatcher bounced back from his poor showing in spring by striking out two and setting the White Sox down in order in the seventh inning. Adam Liberatore struck out Davidson and Yoan Monicada in the eighth. For both, it was their four time striking out on the night.
Andrew Istler came on for the save opportunity and immediately ran into trouble. An error and base hit put runners on the corners with nobody out, then Istler was late to the bag on a run-scoring infield single.
His trouble extended to a fourth consecutive batter as Istler threw wide of first base after fielding a sacrifice bunt, which allowed the White Sox to tie the game. Istler walked the bases loaded, allowed a two-run single, and was removed after failing to retire any of the six batters faced.
Scott Griggs replaced Istler, only to last one batter as he was struck by a line drive. Moancada’s two-run double extended Chicago’s lead to 9-3. A sacrifice fly pushed across the White Sox’s ninth run of the inning.
Eddy Alvarez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, a sacrifice fly brought in another run, and Jason Bourgeois hit a three-run homer. All the Dodgers could muster was two runs in the bottom of the ninth in a 15-5 loss.
