LOS ANGELES—The Dodgers were knocked back down to .500 again after being shut down 4-0, by yet another left-handed pitcher, Brett Anderson. This marks the fourth time this season out of five tries that Los Angeles has failed to defeat a leftie. This is a problem that plagued them last year and continues into this season.
Anderson won’t take all of the credit for the win though. Albert Almora Jr. robbed Joc Pederson of an extra base hit on two different occasions with some stellar defense in center field.
“I think I owe Almora my paycheck for the day,” Anderson said. “Today was a weird scenario. If [Almora] doesn’t make those plays, it’s a different ballgame.” He added: “Those are plays that you don’t expect to be made behind you and he made two web gems,” Anderson said. “You don’t ever want to have to have those guys make those plays behind you, but it was one of those days where it was a grind from pitch one.”
On the other side, Dodgers pitcher Hyun Jin-Ryu was left still looking for his first win since 2014 after losing his second start of the season. For the second straight game, he was pulled before the 5th inning after giving up six hits and four runs, two of which came off solo homers from Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell.
Dodgers fans would have liked to win this series to avenge their NLCS loss to the Cubs last year, but they weren’t able to pull it off. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is confident that they will be able to beat the Cubs next time they face off.
“We look at our club and we know we’re evenly matched,” said Roberts. “I think they know it as well. They won the series. We’ll get them at our place. They know we’re not going anywhere.”
The Dodgers will be able to avenge this series loss next month when they face off in Los Angeles May 26-May 28. In the meantime, the Cubs will host the Pirates for a series starting Friday. The Dodgers will pit two previous Cy Young winners, Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke, against each other when they host the Diamondbacks on Friday.
