Recap: Zack Greinke Throws 7 Scoreless Innings, Dodgers Win On Balk
Robinson Chirinos was put on base with one out in the fifth on a hit by pitch. Nothing would come of it for the Rangers as Greinke retired the next two batters, ending the inning by striking out Ranaudo. Rougned Odor made a backhanded stop on a ball hit up the middle but couldn’t get enough on his throw and Callaspo had a leadoff infield single to start the bottom of the fifth.
After Greinke laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Callaspo into scoring position with two outs. Pederson then drew a walk, bringing Puig to plate, who made good contact only to line out to center. Greinke continued to sail through the game, retiring the Rangers in order in the sixth to keep the game locked in a scoreless tie.
Ranaudo followed suit by keeping Gonzalez, Kendrick and Grandal off the bases in a scoreless bottom of the sixth. Andrus ripped a one-out single by a diving Rollins in the seventh. Then with two out outs, Chirinos hit a soft single into left field that Andrus attempted to go first to third on.
He was initially ruled safe on a head-first slide, however the Dodgers successfully challenged the call. Replay showed Andrus’ right hand slid off the bag after first making contact and thus he was out as Callaspo kept the tag on.
Ethier hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh and unlike Andrus, was able to go first to third on Rollins’ single to right as part of a hit-and-run with one out. With the go-ahead run 90 feet away, Justin Turner pinch-hit for Greinke and flied out to center, but not deep enough for Ethier to tag.
Ross Detwiler came out of the Rangers bullpen and got Pederson to fly out to end the inning. Pederson’s out dropped the Dodgers to 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position on the night with seven runners left on base. J.P. Howell took over in the eighth and struck out the side to keep the game deadlocked at 0-0.
Tanner Scheppers struck out Puig looking for the first out in the eighth. After a Gonzalez groundout, the Rangers’ right-hander got Kendrick to chase for strike three. Although it wasn’t a save opportunity, Kenley Jansen took the mound in the ninth. He struck out the last two of three batters faced in his first action since June 14.
Keone Kela issued a leadoff walk to Grandal in the bottom of the ninth and the catcher was promptly pinch-run for by Kiké Hernandez. Kela’s troubles continued as he walked Ethier on four pitches to bring Callaspo to the plate with the winning run in scoring position.
As Kela battled location issues, Callaspo fouled off two sac-bunt attempts to run the count full before grounding into a 3-6-3 double play. Nearly out of the inning, Kela was called for a balk, gifting the Dodgers a 1-0 win. The walk-off win is the Dodgers’ sixth this season, which matches their total from 2014.
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