When it comes to Cole Hamels, the Dodgers would much more prefer the motto of "less is more."
Once again, Hamels was virtually untouchable for eight innings as the Phillies blanked the Dodgers, 2-0. With the loss, the Dodgers dropped two of three in Philadelphia.
One night after backing up rookie Rubby De La Rosa in winning 6-2, the offense could do absolutely nothing to have Hiroki Kuroda's back. Kuroda tried his best to match Hamels pitch for pitch, but ultimately fell short.
There wasn't much happening over the beginning four innings. Both teams only collected one hit. In the fifth, the Phillies did everything but score. With two outs, Michael Martinez tripled. Hamels took a walk on a full count. Kuorda uncorked a wild pitch to move Hamels up, but Martinez inexplicably didn't try to take home. Shane Victorino was given the intentional walk before Domonic Brown flied out to end the inning.
Even though Kuroda was pitching well, he was still wearing down. Ryan Howard, who along with the rest of the Phillies' offense haven't hit a home run the month of June, changed all of that with one swing. His solo homer with one down put the Phills up 1-0.
Kuroda was then yanked after surrendering a double to Raul Ibanez. Mike MacDougal came on and walked Carlos Ruiz, but got the next two hitters to keep the score as is.
The Dodgers had their best chance to at least tie the game up in the seventh, and bumbled it away. Andre Ethier led off with a double. Matt Kemp singled to put runners on the corners with no outs. What would the rest of the hitters do? Juan Uribe popped up, Marcus Thames struck out, and Rod Barajas flew out.
In other words, it was your latest example of the guys not named Ethier and Kemp not pulling their own weight. Those two combined for four hits, the rest of the team went 3-for-25. That pretty much says it all right there.
The Phillies added another run in the seventh. With Matt Guerrier in, Victorino hit a triple with one out and scored on Brown's fielder's choice RBI.
There was another good opportunity to score against Hamels in the eighth, but you all know already how it turned out. Aaron Miles pinch-hit for Guerrier and singled. After James Loney flew out, Casey Blake singled. Ethier was now given a chance to come up with something big, but came up empty instead with a groundout.
Ryan Madson got a double play ball from Uribe to help him get his 14th save.
Without any help from the bats, Kuroda wasn't given any chance of winning, but he still pitched pretty well. He lasted 5 1/3 innings for four hits, one run, three walks, and seven strikeouts. He seemed to just kind of hit a wall in the fifth. Still, he could've gotten a win with any sort of support. His 5-7 record is in no way reflective of the season he's having, especially considering he has a 3.35 ERA.
Guerrier has given up a run in two straight appearances now, so it's a bit of a concern. Maybe he's just not as lucky as MacDougal, who's sporting a shiny 2.14 ERA despite a high WHIP of 1.52. It could be luck, or it could be he's making big pitches when he needs them. The truth is somewhere in between most likely.
Six games into the road trip, the Dodgers are 3-3 against playoff teams from last season. All things considered, that's actually pretty good. Considering how poorly they were playing recently, I think the Dodgers will take this. It would be hard for any team to play six straight against the Reds and Phillies in their houses, so the Dodgers should be somewhat satisfied with this.
There's no rest for the Dodgers, as they will now travel to Colorado for four in trying to take over third place in the NL West. Clayton Kershaw will look to bounce back from a tough start in Cincinnati in which he gave up six runs.
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