The Dodgers have now bounced back from their losing streak with a sweep of the Padres, completed tonight in a 4-0 win. They have now won 16 of their last 18.
After last night’s marathon, the Dodgers could’ve used a quality start, and Max Scherzer provided exactly that. He dominated the Padres and the bats did enough to make it a comfortable win.
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Max Scherzer has yet to have a blip as a Dodger and he certainly didn’t start tonight against the Padres. They needed him to be effective and efficient and he provided both.
He gave up just a double in the first four frames, otherwise dominating with eight strikeouts in that spam. He faced trouble in the 5th after giving up a double to start and then hitting a batter, but he rebounded with yet another strikeout and then a Justin Turner to Trea Turner combo turned a nice double play to get Max out of it.
Scherzer allowed just a walk in the final eight outs, and he was just brilliant, allowing just four baserunners on the night: 7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB (1 HBP), 10 K, 104 Pitches.
Mad Max was dealing. pic.twitter.com/gCuMRVQzyV
— MLB (@MLB) August 27, 2021
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Old friend Yu Darvish came off the IL to start against the Dodgers and was perfect through an impressive two frames. However, the 3rd was a surprising mess for him. He got ahead of Billy McKinney before walking him and then Austin Barnes of all people took a hanging cutter and blasted it over the wall in left-center field to make it 2-0.
With one down, Trea Turner and Corey Seager traded doubles to plate another run and make it 3-0.
The scoring continued in the 4th as well, because AJ Pollock lined a ball to center and Trent Grisham couldn’t make a diving play and the ball rolled to the wall for a triple. Cody Bellinger cashed it in with a sacrifice fly and it was 4-0.
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Taking over for Darvish in the 6th, Craig Stammen got two scoreless and Shaun Anderson finished the Dodgers off in the 9th, though not without AJ Pollock being robbed of a homer by Trent Grisham.
Trent Grisham, The Independent pic.twitter.com/7OAcRhouIH
— MLB (@MLB) August 27, 2021
Thankfully, it didn’t matter, as Shane Greene got the final out of the 8th for Max, and Joe Kelly finished the game off in the 9th, giving up just an infield single.
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The Dodgers improve to 81-47 on the year, but again didn’t gain a game on the Giants as they swept the Mets. 2.5 games back in the NL West.
A pen game (or something) beckons tomorrow for the Dodgers as they return home to face the Rockies at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET. They will start Kyle Freeland (4.25 ERA/4.36 FIP/3.97 xERA).