Dodgers and Yasmani Grandal have a grand time in Brett Anderson’s return
Because they have continually secured victories at a respectable pace throughout the season and their rival San Francisco Giants have not, the Dodgers need not worry about winning each of their remaining games. Inside their clubhouse Thursday at Dodger Stadium, their players discussed the possibility of clinching the National League West title before leaving town Sunday.
And so Brett Anderson drawing Thursday night’s start against the Colorado Rockies represented no more than a first-round audition for the fourth-starter role the Dodgers must fill for the playoffs, albeit one set before an unusually windy diorama featuring nearly 50,000 fans.
In the Dodgers’ 7-4 comeback victory, highlighted by catcher Yasmani Grandal’s go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning, Anderson neither won the role nor lost it. He’ll probably receive a callback, in the form of a start next week in San Diego, at which point the Dodgers should already have clinched their fourth consecutive division championship. They are now four favorable decisions away from doing so, between their own wins and Giants losses.
“I kind of look at this as my first actual start with everything healthy and feeling good,” Anderson said. “It’s good to finally not be a full detriment to the team.”
Starting for the first time in a month because of a blister, Anderson finished five fitful innings. It started better than his first two outings this season, both disastrous. Charlie Blackmon flew out, DJ LeMahieu grounded out and Nolan Arenado swung weakly at an outside changeup after Anderson set him up with consecutive corner fastballs.
It was one of two strikeouts for the 28-year-old left-hander, whose outing went awry in the second, when Carlos Gonzalez whacked his first pitch into center field for a single. Nick Hundley laced a high fastball into the right-field corner for a double, and when Josh Reddick could not recover the baseball right away, Gonzalez scored. David Dahl singled and Stephen Cardullo walked to load the bases, and Daniel Descalso’s sacrifice fly scored another run.
Colorado starting pitcher Tyler Chatwood bunted the remaining two men up one base. Then, with two out, Blackmon dribbled a ball just to Anderson’s left, and the pitcher tripped trying to pick it up, permitting another run.
Anderson settled into a six-pitch third inning and notched the first two outs of the fourth in five pitches. After a single extended the inning, Anderson induced a routine grounder from Chatwood. Playing second base, Chase Utley fumbled the ball, then frantically picked it up and heaved it behind his back to first. He did not watch the ball’s flight, but he recorded the out.
“I got lucky, to be honest with you,” Utley said.
When Utley returned to the dugout, Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts congratulated him.
“I can’t believe I didn’t make the play,” Utley replied.
With one out in the fifth, LeMahieu launched a solo shot inches beyond Joc Pederson’s outstretched glove atop the center-field wall. Anderson faced two more batters before Roberts asked four relievers to handle an inning apiece.
“For his first start back, I thought it was pretty good,” Roberts said. “Outside of that second inning, I thought he threw the ball well.”
Roberts spoke before the game about Anderson’s signature sinker lacking depth during his August starts. A year ago, when Anderson worked his way into the Dodgers’ No. 3 starting spot, Grandal caught him 18 times, and the duo relied on the pitch.
This year, Grandal had caught only his failed one-inning return from back surgery, in which he yielded five runs on 30 pitches, unable to induce ground-ball outs. And so Grandal watched for the sinker in the bullpen before Thursday’s game. Based on what he saw, he said, he expected one of Anderson’s best outings. He did not get that, but he saw what he described as a “positive outing.”
“My execution still wasn’t where I’d like it to be,” Anderson said. “But I’m getting closer.”
Against Chatwood, Grandal lashed a solo homer to left in the second and in the sixth hammered another baseball in that direction. It went for a double and put two runners in scoring position for Reddick, who brought the Dodgers’ second run of the night in with a groundout.
After Andre Ethier led off the seventh with a pinch-hit double against Rockies right-hander Jordan Lyles, Colorado Manager Walt Weiss called on left-hander Boone Logan.
Roberts countered with the resting Justin Turner, who has struggled against lefties this season. He flew out.
Yasiel Puig pinch-hit for Andrew Toles and walked. Corey Seager walked. Adrian Gonzalez walked too, forcing in a run. Still, Weiss opted not to replace Logan, who, with a two-and-two pitch to Grandal, plopped a fastball into the middle of the strike zone.
Grandal slammed it for a grand slam and his fourth hit of the game, enlivening his teammates, the crowd,and, visibly on the television broadcast, his manager.
“To see that inning through, I was a little emotional,” Roberts said. “What a night he had.
“Really, what a night.”
Twitter: @pedromoura
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