Down 4-0 after three innings, the Dodgers found themselves doing what they've done so well this year already: staging a comeback. Despite making a late run, there just wasn't enough gas in the tank, as the A's held on to win, 5-4.
Of course, the Dodgers may not have been in this game at all had it not been for three Oakland errors. All four runs scored were unearned, something that you don't see very often when looking at a box score.
Hiroki Kuroda was making his fifth start of the season, and he never got going. His stuff looked flat all night, and the A's took advantage. Overall, he finished with five innings pitched, seven hits, five runs, and two strikeouts. After putting together two strong performances coming back from the DL, he's been roughed up his last two. Still, I'm not worried. He's a good pitcher, so just give him some time.
Matt Holliday got the scoring going in the first with an RBI groundout. In the third, Rajai Davis hit a towering solo shot to go up two, and Jack Cust hit a two-run bomb to go up 4-0.
Much like the night before, the Dodgers couldn't score early. They had their chances, though. In the first, starter Trevor Cahill got the first two outs, then proceeded to walk the bases loaded on 12 straight balls.
Andre Ethier worked a 3-0 count, then Cahill finally threw a strike. The next pitch, Ethier popped up in front of the plate, and that was it. Opportunity lost, big time.
Matt Kemp made some noise of his own in the second with a single, a steal of second, and a steal of third. But... it didn't matter. He was stranded.
It took until the fifth for the Dodgers to get on the board, and that was thanks to an error with two down by Adam Kennedy off the bat of Rafael Furcal. Orlando Hudson singled to center, and it was 4-1.
The A's added a big insurance run in the sixth, which turned out to be the winning run. With two outs, Orlando Cabrera, the guy who almost signed with the Dodgers before Hudson did, singled home Holliday to make it 5-1.
I would say the Dodgers' bats got them back into the game, but that would only be a half-truth. Cabrera's error to open the bottom of the sixth put Casey Blake on first, who then went to third on Ethier's double. A sac-fly RBI by Kemp made it 5-2, but that was all the Dodgers could muster.
So we move ahead to the seventh, where Raffy walked to lead off. O-Dog then reached base on... you guessed it, an error, this time by Cust. Blake singled one out later to load 'em up. Ethier delivered this time, unlike the first, with a two-run single, and it suddenly 5-4.
With new life, Kemp came up, who was the hero from the night before. Maybe the Baseball Gods knew the Dodgers really had no business winning this game, because Kemp grounded into a double play to end the inning. Pierre grounded into another DP to end the game.
Errors or not, the Dodgers still got key hits late in the game with men on, but also blew plenty of other chances throughout. In all, there were 10 men left on base. But, closing out the last two innings with double plays were just killer. It's hard to win when that happens.
The rubber match is tonight, and it'll be Randy Wolf on the mound. He's been up and down lately, but did pitch five shutout innings in Texas last start.
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