LOS ANGELES, CA — The Dodgers returned to Southern California after a 5-4 road trip and found themselves right where they were when they left—three games up on the second-place Padres in the NL West Division. But one new thing is that there are some new faces on their roster, as well as old ones gone.
Los Angeles sent CF James Outman to the Twins for 33-year-old Brock Stewart to beef up the Dodger bullpen. LA then brought up 23-year-old SS Alex Freeland from AAA and traded for Nationals’ RF Alex Call in exchange for two minor leaguers. But the most significant trade was moving on from Dustin May, who started 18 games for Los Angeles and was the odd man out with the return of two-time Cy Young Award winner, Blake Snell, to the rotation.
Fans would also see the return of Max Muncy Monday tonight, who has been on the injured list since July 3.
Max Muncy returned from the Injured List prior to Monday night’s series opener vs. the Cardinals – Image Credit: Emma Sharon/Latino Sports
For the starting pitchers, the Dodgers sent out Tyler Glasnow, 1-1, 3.38 ERA, to face St. Louis in game one of a 3-game series, while the Cardinals countered with a possible Cy Young candidate in Sonny Gray, 10-5, 4.38 ERA. Being 10-5 on a team in fourth place in your division, 12 games out of first place, is saying something about the kind of pitcher he is. The 35-year-old veteran, in his thirteenth season, heading into Monday, owned a career record of 121-99 and an ERA of 3.56.
The first run of the game came in the top of the second inning when Cardinals’ SS Masyn Winn parked a 389-foot opposite-field home run into the left-field pavilion. It stayed 1-0, St. Louis, until the bottom of the fourth inning when Freddie Freeman hit a 387-foot line drive into the right field pavilion to tie the score at one apiece. And then we were treated to a masterpiece of pitching by Gray and Glasnow until they were pulled after seven innings.
Freddie Freeman hit his 13th home run of the season in the bottom of the fourth inning of the Cardinals-Dodgers series opener on Monday – Image Credit: Emma Sharon/Latino Sports
Glasnow would leave the game with an outstanding line of seven innings pitched, three hits, one run, two walks, seven strikeouts, and one home run. He threw 101 pitches, 62 for strikes. Gray was equally spectacular as he left with a line of seven innings pitched, one hit, one run, one walk, one home run and eight strikeouts. He threw 90 pitches, 60 for strikes.
But then the game was turned over to what every fan has come to dread, the bullpen. And sure enough, Anthony Banda relieved Glasnow and gave up a two-out home run to Iván Herrera, Panama City, Panama, a 428-foot bomb to dead center field to put St. Louis up by one in the middle of the eighth inning. The Dodgers would tie the game at 2-2 because of some sloppy fielding by St. Louis.
Brendan Donovan and the Cardinals’ late game comeback secured the 3-2 win on Monday at Dodger Stadium – Image Credit: Simon Lindenblatt/Latino Sports
But not to be outdone by the Cardinal pen, the Dodger relievers gave up the winning run on a two-out single by pinch-hitter Yohel Pozo, Maracaibo, Venezuela. Final Score: Cardinals 3 – Dodgers 2.
What was again lost in this game, like so many others in baseball today, was a great pitcher’s duel where the brilliant starters were pulled from a game when no one could hit them because they reached those magic numbers in their pitch counts. Just awful to watch this happen over and over again. What a waste a great game of pitching. Baseball witnesses too many games like Monday’s in LA where the bullpens blow up what was a masterful performance by the starters.
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