Dodgers Highlights: James Outman Hits a Ball 420, Plays Hero in Huge LA Win
The Dodgers opened their second road trip of the season with a 4 game set in Chicago, playing the Cubs for the second week in a row. It was a nail-biter of a game for 8 innings before the hero of the day, James Outman came up with the bases loaded in the 9th…
…but first, let’s look at the highlights of 4/20/23 ballgame.
The night started with a rain delay but Max Muncy got things going quickly in the 2nd inning with his league-leading (tied) 8th home run of the season. As usual, Walker Buehler loved it.
The Cubs tied in the bottom of the inning when old friend Cody Bellinger hit a 420 foot home run to left center field. On April 20th. You can’t make this stuff up
Bellinger’s indirect replacement, James Outman matched him to the foot with a 420′ shot to right center field. …also to Walker’s excitement.
The homer got me thinking back to this great moment in Cody history.
Things took a turn for the worse in the 4th inning when starting pitcher Michael Grove appeared to twist his right knee delivering a pitch. He was removed and is undergoing testing.
The Cubs tied it up shortly after Grove left the game.
The biggest play of the game came from Gold Glove right fielder shortstop Mookie Betts who turned a huge 6-3 double play in the 8th to help keep things tied at 2-2 for the Dodgers to work some magic in the 9th.
David Peralta opened the 9th inning with a jam shot over the second baseman’s head and Miguel Vargas followed with a single to right field. Mookie (who already had a pinch hit single for Luke Williams in the 7th) lined out to center field, but Peralta advanced to third on the play. Jason Heyward worked a clutch 9 pitch walk to set the stage for Outman.
Bases loaded, 1 out and 6 pitches later the Dodgers took a 6-2 lead.
It was the first grand slam of Outman’s MLB career. It was also the first multi-homer game of his career.
Dodgers Pitching
Grove did well to limit the damage when he was in the game, but struggled to put Cubs batters away. He didn’t record a strikeout while allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks in his 3+ innings. Phil Bickford came on in relief of the rookie and allowed one of Grove’s 2 runs to score.
Bickford, Justin Bruihl, Yency Almonte, and Caleb Ferguson combined for an impressive 5 scoreless innings of relief and Brusdar Graterol closed the door on the bullpen’s 5th inning of scoreless relief.
Up Next
The Dodgers (and all of us) have a quick turnaround with an 11:20 am PT start time on Friday. Julio Urias, coming off of his first loss of the season, makes start number 5 of the year. Chicago counters with left-hander Drew Smily. Mookie Betts is expected to be back in the lineup for LA.
