Dodgers pack offensive highs and lows into one day
Like extremes? Packed into one day? By a single club?
Then Friday afternoon was your kind of preseason day, the Dodgers managing to be both offensively inept and save-some-of-that powerful, all on the same little spring day.
It came courtesy of split-squad games, the Dodgers crushing the White Sox, 17-4, while in a charity game played in Tucson to raise funds for the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation, going meekly, 2-0, to the Royals in Surprise, Ariz.
In Tucson, young right-hander Nathan Eovaldi continued to impress with three scoreless innings, lowering his spring earned-run average to 0.84.
And a pair of prized No.1 draft picks made their first spring appearances. Zach Lee, the former Louisiana State quarterback, threw a 12-pitch, perfect seventh inning with one strikeout. Left-hander Chris Reed, taken first from Stanford in last June’s draft, threw a scoreless eighth with a walk and two strikeouts.
Still, it was the offense that demanded the spotlight against the White Sox.
Matt Kemp, who lately had been somewhat quiet, went three for four with a homer and double. He drove in four and scored three times. Dee Gordon had three hits in as many at-bats and scored each time. Mark Ellis went two for three to drive in two and score twice.
The Dodgers managed 23 hits against the White Sox, or 19 more than they did against Kansas City. To be fair, most of the regulars took the two-hour bus ride to the charity game. Christina-Taylor, who was killed in the Tucson shooting last spring that injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was the daughter of Dodgers scout John Green.
The Dodgers were already up, 4-2, when they scored six times in the fifth, three times in the sixth, and then a bunch of kids scored four more times in the seventh.
Aaron Harang started against the Royals, giving up one run in his five innings on five hits and three walks. Javy Guerra and Josh Lindblom each threw a scoreless inning. Scott Elbert, currently the only left-hander in the bullpen, gave up a run in the seventh on two walks and a hit.
The game also featured Jonathan Broxton facing the Dodgers for the first time, their former closer recording a 1-2-3 seventh that included strikeouts of Juan Uribe and Adam Kennedy.
RELATED:
Dodgers have to make decisions on Jamey Wright, John Grabow
Tommy Lasorda: ‘You have to know when to make the big change’
Reasons to love/hate the Dodgers (Web links)
Are you a true-blue fan?
Get our Dodgers Dugout newsletter for insights, news and much more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
