Kyle Lewis' Hits Game Winning Two-Run Homer for Diamondbacks
It wasn't a bad pitch from Alex Vesia. An 8th inning slider on the lower inside corner of the plate on a 2-1 count. But Kyle Lewis was waiting for it, turned on it, and lifted it over the left field wall for a go ahead two run homer, giving the Diamondbacks the margin they needed to produce a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers.
"I had my eye on Vesia, the lefty" Lewis Said. "They were getting him hot the inning before. We talked about ways to attack. I had my eye on a slider down and in. They had been attacking me that way. So I just wanted to see if I could get short with the swing."
The Diamondbacks and Dodgers had been locked in a pitcher's duel of sorts. Dustin May had gone seven scoreless innings, giving up just three hits and walk.
Merrill Kelly got the start for Arizona on a night where he was going to be on a pitch limit of about 75-80. He allowed a walk and single in the first inning and a single and a double in the 2nd. A leadoff walk in the 3rd was followed by three fly outs. Two more walks in the 4th resulted in Kelly not making it out of the inning with his pitch count at 74. Kelly went 3 2/3 innings, giving up three hits and four walks, but no runs.
Drey Jameson came on in relief throwing five straight sliders to Miguel Rojas, getting a fly out on the last one to end the inning. He said the game plan coming in from pen was to attack with sliders early on.
Jameson threw four innings of relief, allowing just one run. He issued two out walks in both the 5th and 6th innings, but got out of the jam both times. In the 7th inning Mookie Betts launched a one out solo homer that just cleared the wall in left, giving L.A. a 1-0 lead.
Two standout defensive plays kept the inning from turning into a big one. Josh Rojas made a diving stop and came up throwing to get Freddie Freeman at first. Then after a Will Smith single Max Muncy launched a line drive to right field over Jake McCarthy's head. But the swift outfielder ran back and snared the ball at the top of his leap to rob extra bases and save at least one run.
That set up the top of the 8th and Torey Lovullo pushed the right buttons, sending up three right-handed pinch hitters in a row. Nick Ahmed grounded out to third, but Evan Longoria doubled into the left field corner, setting up Lewis for the go ahead homer.
Jameson came back out for the 8th inning and recorded two outs before issuing a walk. That ended his night, as Lovullo brought in Scott McGough. Despite the Betts homer, it was a clutch performance from Jameson. Lovullo was matter of fact when he said "We won this game because of Drey Jameson".
The young right hander, who was just converted to a bullpen role, is still trying to figure things out and had little time to get ready, saying with a laugh " It's a little different, you've got to get ready a lot faster". He said he was just able to throw the weighted ball a few times, and threw 8-10 pitches in the pen before he went into the game.
The Dodgers threatened in the ninth, when Scott McGough issued his second walk. That was the D-backs ninth issued walk of the game. But Andrew Chafin came in and shut down the inning retiring Freddie Freeman, Smith and Max Muncy to record the save. If you have a chance, listen in on the player interviews from the post game at the linked below. Chafin was his usual humorous self and is worth the time alone.
The Dodgers were 0-7 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base. The only other time the D-backs have issued nine walks or more and allowed one run or fewer was an 18 inning game on May 29th, 2001. The fewest previous runs they'd allowed in a nine inning game with nine walks or more was three. Stathead report here
You can also listen to the full Torey Lovullo audio down below:
