“My theory of hitting was just to watch the ball as it came in and hit it.”
Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda
* * * *
Many fans and self-proclaimed couch-managers have been known to get frustrated when a team is not hitting as well as they could be. This can be said of the Los Angeles Dodgers from time to time since they boast such a stellar roster. One would surmise that they should ideally be firing on all cylinders consistently at the plate. Players are human, though, and will have their ups and downs, much to said couch-managers chagrin.
Thus, hitting is much easier said than done. Even stats reflect that a player will strike out more times than they actually connect with the ball. This looked to be the case Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles was up against the Chicago Cubs in their fourth and final game of the series. If the Boys in Blue won, they would have swept the Cubs in their last homestand before the All-Star break.
Left-handed pitcher Julio Urias got the start on Sunday in front of a crowd of 41,824. It was 84 degrees and players had to battle the sun during the three-hour and fifty-nine-minute game. Urías would ultimately throw 59 pitches and only go two innings before being replaced by the bullpen. He admitted it was not his best outing, giving up three hits, five runs, one walk, two hit batters, and a home run.
“There was just too many pitches in the first inning. Too many stress pitches. I think the pitch count got a little bit too high and Dave just took me out,” Urías told the media in his postgame interview.
To say Urías had a rocky start would be an understatement. He hit two batters in the top of the first inning. One of those came in to score right before Cubs catcher P.J. Higgins hit his first career grand slam to make the score 5-0 before the home team even got their first at-bat.
Some might have been discouraged at the onset, but not the Dodgers. They answered back by plating three of their own runs in the bottom of the first and continued to chip away at the Cubs’ lead. The bats really came alive in the bottom of the third inning when Los Angeles scored six runs taking a 9-8 lead in the game.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described what went on behind the scenes.
“I had a brief conversation with Julio. He said he understood why I’m taking him out. He said we’re going to come back and win this game,” Roberts affirmed. “And I think there’s times in a year when you feel that’s insurmountable. But I think today the way we answered quickly was a real sign. And we weren’t going to be denied today. I just felt we really did well today.”
“You just get down 5–0, you just want to come back and make a game of it. For the offense to come and do that and grind it all the way to the end, that’s what special teams do,” Freeman would later say of the Dodgers 25th – and largest – comeback win of the season.
Both teams would eventually go through a combined thirteen pitchers before the game ended with the Dodgers as the victors. The final score was 11-9, and Los Angeles may have exhausted their bullpen, but they got the sweep and now have an eight game lead over the San Diego Padres in the NL West division.
Roberts summed up the nearly four-hour game in his postgame interview with SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson:
“We’ve talked a lot recently about team wins. It’s just a great team win, it really was,” Roberts explained. “We just kept fighting. Being down early, five runs and then answering and then getting back down again by five runs. We just persevered. The offense really stepped up in a big way. We went through essentially all of our relievers and they all pitched well. Probably a five-hour game, something like that, at the end of a twenty-game stretch, eleven-game home stand. To finish it off the way we did – really happy for our guys. This off-day couldn’t come at a better time.”
Lately, the blue crew have been on a roll at the plate and off the mound with only a few hiccups. They have Monday off before a three-game series in St. Louis against the Cardinals (46-42) and two games in the Freeway Series against the Los Angeles Angels (38-49). Here’s to keeping that momentum going before and after the break.
Let’s go Dodgers!