At some point the Dodgers bats were going to heat up. Kyle Hendricks throwing 85 MPH fastballs was that point.
Shohei Ohtani led the game off with a triple. Mookie Betts singled him in. Then Will Smith crushed a ball to the outfield pavilion to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead before most fans had found their seats.
But these pesky Angels fought back. Taylor Ward got the team on the board with his 29th home run of the year in the 2nd.
Luis Rengifo later hit a sacrifice fly to score Yoan Moncada and cut the Dodgers lead to 3-2.
Nobody scored in the third inning, but the Dodgers put 2 more runs on the board in the top of the 4th to stretch the lead to 5-2. At this point it seemed like the momentum from the first 2 games had shifted to the other dugout.
But Zach Neto doesn’t know how to quit and he cracked a 2 run single in the bottom of the 5th inning to make it a 5-4 ballgame. The Angels ultimately left the bases loaded, leaving a chance to tie or take the lead on the table.
The score held at 5-4 through the 7th inning in large part to this absolutely incredible play by newcomer Bryce Teodosio.
Bryce led off the bottom of the 7th with a squibber he was able to turn into a double thanks to his speed. Already in scoring position, he decided to attempt to steal 3rd base and was called out. That baserunning mistake took a scoring chance off the board and kept the Angels trailing by a run.
Brock Burke has quietly turned into a solid reliever. He pitched a clean top of the 8; punctuated by striking out Ohtani looking to end the inning. Really, all in all the Angels pitching did a good job of keeping the Dodgers off the board after the rough 1st inning.
The Dodgers bullpen has been shaky lately but held up well in the middle innings. All 4 of the Angels runs to that point were scored off Ohtani who only lasted 4 and 1/3rd innings.
However, when Justin Wrobleski went out for his 3rd inning of work, he walked Mike Trout and Taylor Ward before he was pulled.
2 on, no out, bottom of the 8th, down by 1. Has this series been great or what?
A failed attempt to bunt the runners over led to Trout being out at 3rd and Moore taking 1st base. Jo Adell laced an infield hit to load the bases. Luis Rengifo struck out, and the tension increased.
Then Logan O’Hoppe stepped to the plate, put the team on his back, and delivered.
Kenley Jansen then got to face his old team for the third night in a row. This time he did not have to face Shohei Ohtani. Kenley got Betts to fly to left and Freeman to bounce to 1st. When Will Smith flew out to left the game was over.
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Light that baby up! Father’s Day is June 21st next year. The Dodgers better buy us a card and something nice.
SWEEP!!!!
