Astros 4 9 1
WP- Fulchino (1-2)
LP- Jansen (1-1)
HR- Kemp (11)
In the 7th inning we saw Ethier and Kershaw smiling and congratulating each other after Dre delivers a clutch pinch hit single after Kershaw is lifted from the game. Hey guys, haven't you ever watched a Dodger game? It's never over until the last out is made.
Clayton Kershaw made a valient effort to try to get his 6th win of the season in his home state of Texas. But alas, the Dodgers always find a way to lose somehow. Even the league worst Astros looked like a first place team when up against the reeling boys in blue. We haven't seen a good old-fashioned bullpen meltdown in awhile. Well, tonight be the night ladies and gentleman!
Both Norris and Kershaw swap 1-2-3 innings in the 1st.
The 2nd inning starts off with a bang, as the Bison goes deep for his 11th homerun of the season and his 100th homerun of his career! 1-0 Dodgers. Kershaw sends the Astros down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
The Astros tie it up in the 3rd when the pesky Hall leads of with a double. Gibbons is unable to catch the ball in right field. Any other right fielder would have caught it. It boggles my mind that Donnie would start Gibbons over Gwynn. Quintero promptly singles in Hall to tie it at 1 a piece.
In the 4th Kemp and Gibbons both whiff. Sands walks, and is caught stealing second by a mile. Still young, still learning. Kershaw once again has a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 4th.
The Dodgers go down in order in the 5th. Kershaw allows a lead off double (his second in as many at- bats) to Hall, but strikes out Quintero and Norris and gets Bourn to fly out.
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| Miles Is Unable to Tag Hall as He slides into Second |
In the 7th, Navarro gets a lucky 2-out ground rule double. The Astros intentionally walk Russ Mitchell thinking they will get to pitch to Kershaw. Now under any other situation there's no way you pull Kershaw this early since he's pitching well, and our bench is horrendous. But tonight is different, because we have Ethier on the bench since he didn't start today after being banged up in yesterday's game. Dre comes up to pinch hit for Kershaw, and on a 2 strike count singles up the middle scoring both Navarro and Mitchell! 3-1 Dodgers! Bourn, the center fielder, also makes an error on the play. MacDougal comes in and pitches a great 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 7th.
Kershaw goes 6 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, and striking out 7.
Norris goes 7 innings, allowing 6 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts.
Instead of leaving Dougie to pitch the 8th which I would have done, Donnie brings in the sketchy Guerrier. He promptly walks Bourn, strikes out Barmes, Bourn steals second of course, then Pence gets an infield single sending Bourn to 3rd base. We all see a meltdown swirling. Lee pops out thankfully. Honeycutt visits the mound along with most of the infield. Wallace grounds out, phewwww.
In the 9th Sands leads of with his 3rd walk of the game, but of course Navarro hits into a double play.
Kenley Jansen is called in to pitch the bottom of the 9th. Now we know 2 outs is not much, and any lead whatsoever is always in jeopardy with the Dodger bullpen. Yet, we have some positive thoughts that Jansen may be able to close this out and get us a much-needed win. He strikes out Johnson after going 3-0 on him. Ok, good way to battle back. Hall singles. Downs strikes out after Jansen goes 3-0 on him as well. Ok, two outs, but let's not get excited just yet. Hall takes second. Jansen walks Sanchez. Another Honeycutt visit. Runners take 2nd and 3rd on a double steal while Navarro drools. Our meltdown sensors are going off...Bourn then doubles down the first baseline, past Loney, scoring both runners, 3-3 game. Then Jansen hits Barmes with the pitch. At this point we see Jansen is totally Chernobyled, why not bring in Elbert or someone else? Well they don't, so Pence singles to left field, scoring Bourn and the Astros win 4-3.
We now fall back to 7.5 behind San Francisco in the standings. Hope is dwindling for this team. We need to start looking at some different options. There's no point in continuing this downward spiral. Tomorrow Chad Billingsley will go to the mound. Oh but on the bright side, James Loney's little dribbler single extends his hitting streak to 9 games! Till tomorrow Dodger fans, Go Blue:)
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