True Blue LA - May 7: Nationals 3, Dodgers 2Where The Dodger Dogs Are Always Grilledhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/49563/truebluela_fav.png2014-05-07T14:45:29-07:00http://www.truebluela.com/rss/stream/54552692014-05-07T14:45:29-07:002014-05-07T14:45:29-07:00Dodgers offense slows to a drizzle in loss
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<figcaption>Patrick Smith</figcaption>
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<p>The Dodgers lost the last two series on their nine-game road trip, and are now 13-7 on the road this season.</p> <p>The <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.truebluela.com/">Dodgers</a> rallied early but otherwise couldn't quite solve <span>Stephen Strasburg</span>, dropping the finale of their three-game series to the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.federalbaseball.com/">Nationals</a>, 3-2 on Wednesday afternoon. The Dodgers offense was summed up by a pair of 10-pitch at-bats from their first baseman.</p>
<p><span>Adrian Gonzalez</span> had a single to end a 10-pitch at-bat in the first inning that keyed the Dodgers' only scoring rally of the game. In the eighth inning, down a run with <span>Dee Gordon</span> on second and <span>Hanley Ramirez</span> on first base with one out, Gonzalez had another 10-pitch at-bat, this time against Jerry Blevins. But it ended with a foul pop out to third base.</p>
<p><span>Yasiel Puig</span> followed with a hard line drive to center field against <span>Tyler Clippard</span>, hit hard enough to induce a bat flip from Puig, but it was right at center fielder <span>Denard Span</span> to end the inning.</p>
<p>Both teams scored two runs on four hits in the first inning, but under wildly different circumstances. The Dodgers strung together consecutive singles from <span>Carl Crawford</span>, Ramirez, Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig to plate their two runs.</p>
<p>The Nationals, however, played wall ball against <span>Dan Haren</span>. After a leadoff single by Denard Span, <span>Anthony Rendon</span> followed with a would-be double that Crawford managed to track down in left field for one out. But then <span>Jayson Werth</span> doubled off the center field wall to put runners on second and third, Adam Laroche lined a ball off the top of the right field wall to tie the game but settled for a single with his sore quad. <span>Wilson Ramos</span>, fresh off the disabled list, hit one off the left field wall for a double, but his ball had the decency to bounce first before reaching the wall.</p>
<p>Haren walked <span>Ian Desmond</span> to load the bases with one out, but was able to escape with no further damage by striking out <span>Danny Espinosa</span> and getting <span>Kevin Frandsen</span> to pop out to second base.</p>
<p>Haren settled down after the first, though he graduated from the <span>Jeff Weaver</span> school of bad body language on the mound. On several occasions during the SportsNet LA broadcast, analyst Orel Hershiser pointed out just how uncomfortable Haren looked on the mound, even speculating that the right-hander was trying to stretch out tightness in either his back or hamstrings.</p>
<p>Despite struggling for most of his start, Haren battled though six innings, allowing one more run on a sacrifice fly in the fifth. But that was enough.</p>
<p>Strasburg threw 28 pitches in the first inning, but allowed just two hits and a walk from the second through the seventh, and pitched into the eighth for his third win of the year.</p>
<p><span>Rafael Soriano</span> pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save of the year.</p>
<h4>Notes</h4>
<p>The start of the game was delayed by rain, with a first pitch an hour and 40 minutes after originally planned.</p>
<p>Crawford was 2-for-4, his third straight multi-hit game, and is 10-for-17 (.588) in his last five games.</p>
<p>Puig was 1-for-3 with a walk, extending his hitting streak to seven games, hitting .433 (13-for-30) during the streak.</p>
<p>Gordon stole second base in the eighth inning, his 20th stolen base of the season to lead all of baseball. Crawford led the 2013 Dodgers with 15 steals.</p>
<p>Dodgers starting pitchers on the road trip, including a pair of Triple-A spot starts, had a 3.46 ERA in nine starts, with 42 strikeouts and 14 walks in 52 innings.</p>
<h4>Up next</h4>
<p>The Dodgers return home after a three-city road trip that saw them fly over 6,200 miles, play nine games in eight days, have one game rained out and have two more games delayed by nearly five total hours. A seven-game homestand begins Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, with <span>Josh Beckett</span> starting for the Dodgers against <span>Ryan Vogelsong</span> for the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/">Giants</a>.</p>
<h4>Wednesday particulars</h4>
<p><b>Home runs</b>: none</p>
<p><b>WP - Stephen Strasburg (3-2)</b>: 7⅓ IP, 7 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts</p>
<p><b>LP - Dan Haren (4-1)</b>: 6 P, 7 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts</p>
<p><b>Sv - Rafael Soriano (7)</b>: 1 IP, 2 strikeouts</p>
https://www.truebluela.com/2014/5/7/5692102/stephen-strasburg-dodgers-nationals-recapEric Stephen2014-05-07T08:45:11-07:002014-05-07T08:45:11-07:00Yasiel Puig returns to Dodgers lineup
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<figcaption>Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>Puig is 12-for-27 (.444) on his current six-game hitting streak.</p> <p><span>Yasiel Puig</span> is back in the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.truebluela.com/">Dodgers</a> lineup after missing two games from crashing into the right field wall in Miami on Sunday. Puig is batting fifth and playing right field in Wednesday morning's series and road trip finale against the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.federalbaseball.com/">Nationals</a>.</p>
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<h4>Starting Lineups</h4>
<table class="sbnu-legacy-content-table" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"><tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#157dec" width="125"><font color="#ffffff"><b>Dodgers</b></font></td>
<td colspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#ba122b" width="125"><font color="#ffffff"><b>Nationals</b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2B</td>
<td>Gordon (L)</td>
<td>CF</td>
<td>Span (L)<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>LF</td>
<td>Crawford (L)<br>
</td>
<td>3B</td>
<td>Rendon</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>SS</td>
<td>Ramirez</td>
<td>RF</td>
<td>Werth</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1B</td>
<td>Gonzalez (L)<br>
</td>
<td>1B</td>
<td>LaRoche (L)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>RF</td>
<td>Puig<br>
</td>
<td>C</td>
<td>Ramos <br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>CF<br>
</td>
<td>Ethier (L)</td>
<td>SS</td>
<td>Desmond</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3B</td>
<td>Uribe</td>
<td>2B<br>
</td>
<td>Espinosa (S)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>C</td>
<td>Olivo</td>
<td>LF<br>
</td>
<td>Frandsen<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>P</td>
<td>Haren<br>
</td>
<td>P</td>
<td>Strasburg</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<span><b>Location</b>: Nationals Park<br><b>Time</b>: 10:05 a.m. PT <br><b>TV</b>: SportsNet LA</span>
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<p><span>Adrian Gonzalez</span> also returns to the lineup after his second day off of the season. Gonzalez, hitting .282/.364/.573 and leading the team in OPS (.936), home runs (nine), runs scored (22), runs batted in (26) and walks (16), is 3-for-6 with a double against Nationals starter <span>Stephen Strasburg</span>.</p>
<p>Puig has been on fire of late, carrying a six-game hitting streak into Wednesday, hitting .444/.531/.593 during that span. The outfielder also has eight multi-hit games in his last 12 contests.</p>
<p>Puig is 0-for-3 against Strasburg, but that hardly makes him unique among Dodgers outfielders. <span>Andre Ethier</span> is 0-for-7 with a walk and five strikeouts, and <span>Carl Crawford</span> is 0-for-4 with a strikeout. <span>Matt Kemp</span>, sitting in the finale, is 0-for-5 with three strikeouts against the right-hander.</p>
<p><span>Hanley Ramirez</span>, who was 3-for-5 with a home run on Tuesday night, is 4-for-13 (.308) with a home run, two doubles and two walks against Strasburg.</p>
<p><span>Dan Haren</span> gets the call for the Nationals, for whom he played in 2013. The right-hander's strong second half (6-5, 3.29 ERA, nine home runs allowed in 15 starts, 23.9% strikeout rate) earned him a $10 million contract from the Dodgers in the offseason and it has carried over into 2014 (4-0, 2.39 ERA, two home runs allowed in six starts, 21.5% strikeout rate, career-high 52.2% ground ball rate).</p>
<p>But it was Haren's putrid first half in 2013 (4-9, 6.15 ERA, 19 home runs allowed in 15 starts, 18.3% strikeout rate) that earned him scorn from the Washington fans.</p>
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<p>Haren on pitching here: "They would boo me when I was running to 1st base on a ground ball.. They didn't love me, but you can't blame them."</p>
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) <a href="https://twitter.com/markasaxon/statuses/463462433643057152">May 5, 2014</a>
</blockquote>
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<p>But that is nothing compared to the morning Nationals manager <span>Matt Williams</span> had. During a radio interview on his way to the ballpark, his car was rear-ended by a car during a police chase. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post <a target="_blank" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/05/07/matt-williams-rear-ended-in-car-accident-during-radio-interview/">has more</a>:</p>
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<p>"Sorry guys, I just had an accident," he said, in the middle of baseball talk. "I’ve got a police officer behind me. This guy’s gonna try to escape. The guy’s running. He just ran right into the back of me. I just got rear-ended by a guy in a car. Hold on. This guy’s crashing into people,"</p>
<p>The Junkies asked him if he was ok.</p>
<p>"Yeah. I’m good," Williams said, and then answered more questions about what happened. "There was a police car behind me and a guy in a car and he tried to get by me and he just smoked me. I’m almost to the ballpark. He tried to get out of his car and then he got around me [in his car] and now they’re chasing him."</p>
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<p>The team issued a statement saying Williams was fine.</p>
<blockquote align="center" class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Nats&src=hash">#Nats</a> Manager Matt Williams is fine and uninjured after his car was hit on his way to the ballpark this morning.</p>
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Nationals/statuses/464050511990095872">May 7, 2014</a>
</blockquote>
<p>The Nationals made a roster move before Wednesday's series finale, activating catcher <span>Wilson Ramos</span> from the disabled list. Ramos is starting at catcher, batting fifth. Tuesday's starting pitcher, <span>Blake Treinen</span>, was optioned back to Triple-A to make room on the active roster.
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https://www.truebluela.com/2014/5/7/5690718/yasiel-puig-lineup-dodgers-nationalsEric Stephen