Dodgers Fall Short in Game Two Against the Astros
The Los Angeles Dodgers faced off against the Houston Astros in Game Two of their highly anticipated interleague series. Los Angeles was looking to bounce back after a brutal thrashing at the hands of Houston in Game One. It was a game that resulted in an 18-1 demolition that saw Ben Casparius get lit up, as his struggles continued after having a rough June. The win for the Astros was the fourth-largest margin of victory in franchise history. Today, the Dodgers were hoping to get some juice from Shohei Ohtani, who took the mound on his 31st birthday.
Ohtani delivered on his end, pitching a clean inning in the first and striking out the side in his second inning of work. His day was done after that second inning, as he continued to ramp up his workload. Unlike yesterday, the Dodgers got on the board first with Mookie Betts hitting a solo home run in the first inning for his 11th of the year. Then in the second inning, Miguel Rojas knocked in an RBI single to kick off his brilliant day at the plate, giving the Dodgers a two-run advantage.
Just when the Dodgers thought they had a decent amount of momentum, the Astros came striking back with a huge top of the third. As Ohtani’s day was done, Justin Wrobleski became the innings-eater, and it was not the greatest of appearances. In the blink of an eye, Houston dropped four runs, with known Dodgers killer Christian Walker nailing an RBI single before Wrobleski was able to finish out the inning with a strikeout. One thing to note is that Wrobleski allowed just two runs in his last two starts combined.
After a quiet top of the third from the Dodgers’ offense, Yainer Diaz of the Astros kicked off the top of the fourth with a solo shot to put Houston up 5-2. Wrobleski was able to silence the Astros’ bats the rest of the inning, allowing the Dodgers to get back in the ball game, and that they did. With two outs and a runner on first base, Rojas continued his big day at the plate, rocketing a two-run home run to cut the Astros’ lead to just one run. Ohtani grounded out to end the inning. One not-so-fun fact for Ohtani himself is that the groundout made him 2-24 in his career on his birthday, as his struggles continued on his yearly big day.
Both offenses cooled down through the seventh inning, as Wrobleski settled in and finished his day with two outs in the seventh inning. He finished with a statline of 4.2 innings pitched, allowing five runs and seven hits with six strikeouts. On the other side, Framber Valdez pitched another quality start, as he has been on a heater since June started. The Dodgers got Valdez a bit as he allowed the most earned runs since May 14th in a start against the Chicago White Sox.
The Astros tacked on an insurance run in the top of the eighth to give them a two-run cushion. While the Dodgers posed a small threat in the bottom half of the inning, Esteury Ruiz struck out to end the inning. It was just his third at-bat of the season. Josh Hader took down the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth to end the game, completing a four-out save and grabbing his league-leading 25th save of the season, as he remains perfect in save opportunities. On a Fourth of July weekend, there have been no fireworks for Los Angeles in this series so far. Emmet Sheehan will look to salvage a potential series sweep with his second start of the season in tomorrow’s game, while the Astros will roll out rookie Colton Gordon.
