Zack Greinke Reels in his 12th Win of the Season Against the Fish

Dodgers 4 7 0
Marlins 1 6 3
Zack Greinke (12-3)
Nathan Eovaldi (2-4)

Zack Greinke entered into tonight’s game with a record of 11-3 and 3.02 era, against former Dodger Nathan Eovaldi, who had a record of 2-3 and a 3.96 era at the start of the game. Eovaldi, who was traded last year before the trade deadline for Hanley Ramirez. Eovaldi was a promising starting pitcher coming up in the Dodger’s organization before getting traded to Miami just before the trade deadline. Greinke threw for 8 innings, gave up 1 run and 6 hits, no walks and had 7 strikeouts with 99 pitches, lowering his ERA to 2.91. Greinke’s only mistake was giving up Stanton’s home run in the first inning. Eovaldi finished the game with 7 innings, gave up 3 runs, 2 earned 6 hits, 3 walks and 5 strike outs, lowering his ERA to 3.82.
Eovaldi had been dominating the Dodgers for three innings, the way Eovaldi was pitching, the Dodgers could have been in for a long night, but the Dodgers lineup were able to figure Eovaldi out in the 4th inning by hitting two consecutive hits by Yasiel Puig, got on error, and Adrian Gonzalez. Shortstop Hanley Ramirez hits a double into deep right field to score Puig and Gonzalez stops at third to make it 1-1. Andre Ethier is starting to heat up at the plate and comes up to the plate hits a single to right scoring Gonzalez with Ramirez stopping at third. Ethier ended up going 2 for 3 with 1 rbi in the game. While catcher A.J. Ellis was at the plate, Eovaldi makes a bad throw to first, trying to pick off Ethier, Ramirez was jogging home and Ethier moving over to second on the error by Eovaldi to make score 3-1. Second and third with 1 out in the bottom of the 8th, third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr hits a sacrifice fly to score Ramirez, who singled to left and stole 2nd in the inning, from third to make it 4-1. Ramirez went 2 for 4 with1 rbi and a stolen base and Puig went 0 for 5 in the game.

Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Greinke was hit hard in the first two innings, giving up a Marlin’s right fielder Giancarlo Stanton line drive home run into right field to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Greinke gave up two straight singles in the second inning, but was able to get out of the jam safely. After the 2nd inning, He was able to settle down and do what he does best, which is throw strikes and get outs. Greinke even picked of Marlins shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria after Hechavarria doubled to left in the bottom of the fourth inning. Greinke batting wise, went 0 for 3, bringing his batting average down to .333, which I believe is still the best batting average in the majors for a starting pitcher with the minimum at bats. Closer Kenley Jansen came in to pitch the last inning. Ethier saves Jansen, who had a runner on 2nd, with a huge catch to end the game. The Dodgers win 4-1.

Greinke was huge tonight throwing the 8 innings  and giving the bullpen extra rest. Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to take the mound tomorrow. He is currently having one of his best seasons of his career, so expect him to go out there and throw at least 7-8 innings, unless he’s in the process of throwing a no-hitter or perfect game. At this point, it’s almost September, so the pitching rotation needs to go minimum six innings and the maximum is 7 innings because I would want to rest the pitching rotation and keep them fresh for the playoffs. But that’s just my opinion about what Dodger’s manager Don Mattlingly should do with his starting rotation.

Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports

I was disapointed that we didn’t get to see the beard, Brian Wilson. I am sure many Dodgers fans and MLB fans are very curious to see how Wilson does and looks like in an actual Dodger blue uniform in a Dodger debut. I hope to see him for sure tomorrow, considering it is a day game, and the bullpen will be fully rested after not being used tonight. But then again, its Kershaw that is on the mound tomorrow. Let’s just hope the Dodgers offense give enough run support to give Kershaw to pitch deep into the game. So the Dodgers bullpen might get another useful day off tomorrow and prepare for the Boston Red Sox series, which should be really exciting to watch.

Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

The Dodgers-Marlins game will start at 9:30 PST on KCAL and on the radio on channel 570 tomorrow with Kershaw taking the hill and going for his 13th win of the season (12-7) with 1.80 ERA (wow!!!!) will be going up against Marlins pitcher Henderson Alvarez, who will be trying to get his 3rd win of the season and sports a (2-2) record with an ERA of 3.41. KCAL will be blacked out for the TWC viewers. Hope you will be able to figure something out TWC fans and watch the game! Go Blue!