Dodgers sweep two-game set with Astros

There weren’t any fireworks in tonight’s game, but Dodgers fans can come away with a good feeling: The Dodgers swept the mini two-game series with the Astros with a 4-2 victory Wednesday night in Houston. Edwin Rios was the star of the game, hitting a two-run shot in the top of the 13th. The Dodgers bullpen gave up only one unearned run and five hits in 9.1 innings.

The Dodgers new travel to Arizona for a four-game series with the Diamondbacks.

Edwin Rios, who had a slash line of .277/.393/.617 in a brief tenure in the majors with the Dodgers last season, led off the top of the 12th with a home run to give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead.

We head to the 13th inning as the Dodgers and Astros failed to score, or even really threaten to score, in the 12th. Maybe they should start with a runner on third base?

And we go to more extra innings. With Scott Alexander beginning his second inning of work, Jack Mayfield was the runner on second to start the second. He moved to third on Yuli Gurriel’s single and scored on Carlos Correa’s (of all people) single. Alexander and Dennis Santana escaped further damage.

On to the 12th!

The runner on second rule paid off for the Dodgers in the top of the 11th. Kiké Hernandez started the inning on second, stayed there when Edwin Rios struck out and moved to third when Austin Barnes grounded out. Max Muncy walked and then Mookie Betts doubled to deep left, scoring Hernandez. Cody Bellinger was walked intentionally to load the bases and Justin Turner flied to right. Dodgers lead, 2-1, but the Astros get a runner on second when they come to bat in the bottom of the 11th.

Putting a runner on second to start the inning didn’t help the Dodgers or Astros as they failed to score. We go to the 11th. In the minor leagues, 73% of extra-inning games ended in the 10th, and 93% ended in the 10th or 11th.

I’ve never felt sorry for cardboard cutouts before, but I do for the ones in Houston watching this game. We are going to extra innings with the score tied 1-1. We do get to see the new extra-inning rule however. Whoever made the last out in the previous inning starts the next inning on second base. In the Dodgers’ case, that is Justin Turner.

Doesn’t anyone want to win this game? It’s still 1-1 after eight. Roberto Osuna pitching for Houston, Blake Treinen for the Dodgers.

Los Angeles City Councilman-elect Kevin de León fired at MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on the league’s decision on suspending Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly:

In what has been an extremely uneventful game until now, it remains Dodgers 1, Astros 1 after seven innings in Houston. The Astros have five hits and the Dodgers have two.

The Dodgers tried to take the lead in the top of the sixth. With Cristian Guzman still on the mound for the Astros, Matt Beaty popped to third. Austin Barnes then walked and took second on Max Muncy’s infield single. That brought up Mookie Betts, who flied to right. Blake Taylor came in to pitch and Cody Bellinger fouled to third. If those two guys don’t get on track soon, it will be a long short season for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers went 1-2-3 in the top of the fifth, and the Astros wasted a one-out single in the bottom of the fifth. Dylan Floro is now pitching for the Dodgers.

After the Dodgers went quietly in the top of the fourth, the Astros threatened. Michael Brantley walked and was forced at second on Yuli Gurriel’s grounder to third. Carlos Correa singled to right, Gurriel stopping at second. Josh Reddick fouled out, and with the left-handed hitting Myles Straw coming up, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts went to his bullpen and brought in lefty Jake McGee, who struck Straw out.

Dodgers 1, Astros 1 after four innings.

Both the Dodgers and Astros went down in order in the third. It’s still 1-1.

Houston (no relation) tied it up in the bottom of the second. Michael Brantley doubled to right. Dustin May struck out Yuli Gurriel and then Carlos Correa walked. The runners moved up on Josh Reddick’s groundout, then Brantley scored on Myles Straw’s infield single. Martin Maldonado then struck out. It’s 1-1 after two. No fireworks so far.

With one out in the top of the second, Corey Seager homered to right field to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. That’s where it stands with the Astros coming to bat in the bottom of the inning.

Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly was suspended for eight games on Tuesday for throwing at Astros batters and taunting Carlos Correa.

But that’s an eight game suspension during a 60-game season. The equivalent for a 162 game season would be a 22 game suspension. I can’t remember any time a pitcher was suspended 22 games for throwing at a batter, but that’s basically what just happened.

Astros rookie Cristian Javier retired the Dodgers in order in the top of the first, striking out Max Muncy, Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger.

The Twitter world has plenty to say on MLB’s decision to suspend pitcher Joe Kelly for eight games:

Former pitcher Phil Hughes changed his profile picture on Twitter to Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly with the hashtags #AmericanHero #FreeKelly.

DODGERS LINEUP

Max Muncy 1B

Mookie Betts RF

Cody Bellinger CF

Justin Turner 3B

Corey Seager SS

Chris Taylor 2B

Joc Pederson LF

Matt Beaty DH

Austin Barnes C

Dustin May RHP

ASTROS LINEUP

Kyle Tucker LF

José Altuve 2B

Alex Bregman 3B

Michael Brantley DH

Yuli Gurriel 1B

Carlos Correa SS

Josh Reddick RF

Myles Straw CF

Martin Maldonado C

Cristian Javier RHP

Dodgers pitcher Dustin May.

(Kent Nishimura; Allison Hong / Los Angeles Times)

A night after Joe Kelly ignited the Dodgers-Astros rivalryJoe Kelly ignited the Dodgers-Astros rivalry, the clubs will finish a quick two-game series Wednesday at Minute Maid Park.

Dustin May, a rookie, will start for the Dodgers. Cristian Javier, another rookie, will make his first major-league start. Neither pitcher participated in the 2017 World Series, but neither did Kelly and that didn’t stop tempers from flaring.

Javier is right-handed so Max Muncy will return to the leadoff spot for the Dodgers, moving Mookie Betts to second in the batting order. Chris Taylor will take Kiké Hernández’s spot at second base, Joc Pederson is back in the lineup in left field, and Matt Beaty will make his season debut as the designated hitter.

May makes his second start of the season after toeing the rubber opening day on short notice when Clayton Kershaw landed on the injured list. May allowed a run on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings in that first outing against the San Francisco Giants.

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Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly has been suspended eight games by Major League Baseball after he “threw a pitch in the area of the head of Alex Bregman and later taunted Carlos Correa, which led to the benches clearing,” the league announced Tuesday.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts received a one-game suspension. Kelly is appealing his suspension. Roberts will serve his suspension tonight, with bench coach Bob Geren filling in as manager.

Kelly’s actions during the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over the Houston Astros on Tuesday night were in apparent retaliation for the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme in 2017, the same season Houston defeated the Dodgers in the World Series.

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It was Tuesday night in Houston, and Corey Seager had just led off the top of the fifth inning with a single to left field.

Dodgers play-by-play man Joe Davis described what the hit sounded like, setting up analyst Orel Hershiser for comments he’d obviously thought through.

Here’s how the conversation went:

Davis: Listen to that sound.

Hershiser: Yeah. Whooock.

Davis: Instead of bang.

Hershiser: You want to get into that?

Davis: Oh, we got to at some point.

Hershiser: You’re going to really get me going.

Davis: Here’s [A.J.] Pollock. Go ahead.

Hershiser: I view the 2017 Dodgers as world champions. And I think that their legacy should be that. It won’t be, but it should be. They were ripped off. You talk to Justin Turner and Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, lot of the guys, and all of them to a man will tell you that any conversation they get into with fans, at some point in the conversation it comes up, ‘I’m still waiting for you guys to win a world championship.’ And they can’t come back with, ‘We should’ve, we would’ve,’ because it sounds like sour grapes. So it just, it hurts everything. It’s such a butterfly effect. It’s changed all their lives.

Davis: One ball, one strike on A.J. Pollock. You, and this is what really sunk in for me, you said that every day of your life since ’88 would have been different if [Mark] McGwire, [Jose] Canseco and so on had known what was coming. Every day.

Hershiser: Exactly. Clayton Kershaw didn’t have a breaking ball that was swung and missed at in the game in Houston, where he ended up looking like the goat again, the game that went, what, 13-12. I had [Dave] Parker and Canseco swinging and missing at breaking balls in the dirt, ones that were wide. If they knew they were coming, they’d have been taking them right out of my hand and they would’ve been sitting on my fastball. And I would not have been on the Johnny Carson show or would not have been at the last Reagan state dinner sitting next to Margaret Thatcher. I wouldn’t have been getting a contract that was one of the highest-paid in the game. I would have been a goat.

Davis: Ground ball base hit for Pollock, who is 2 for 2. Goat in the older sense.

Hershiser: Yeah, goat in the negative sense.

Joe Kelly

(Bob Levey / Getty Images)

Thank you, Joe KellyJoe Kelly.

Thank you for banging hard on the trash can that is the Houston AstrosHouston Astros.

Thank you for making sure the DodgersDodgers didn’t get cheated again.

Bless you, Joe Kelly, for a fearless, vengeful, and amazingly scoreless inning that will live forever in Dodgers lore.

In their first game at Houston’s Minute Maid Park since they were robbed of the 2017 World Series championship here, the Dodgers let long-bottled emotions finally explode through Kelly’s wild right hand, his sharp tongue and his mocking expressions.

He not only stood up for a wronged clubhouse, he spoke for an aggrieved Dodger Nation, and it was a sight to see.

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The first clue underscoring the animosity between the Dodgers and the Houston Astros didn’t surface until the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday night.

The Dodgers were up three runs en route to a 5-2 victory at Minute Maid Park. The bases were empty. Alex Bregman had worked a 3-and-0 count against Dodgers right-hander Joe Kelly. The scene didn’t scream tension. But Kelly abruptly reminded the Astros of his club’s feelings with a 96-mph fastball behind Bregman’s head. Bregman calmly looked away, bent over to remove his ankle guard, and took his base without a word. Kelly then yawned.

The next close call wasn’t disregarded. Three batters later, with runners on first and second and two outs, Kelly hurled an 87-mph curveball that narrowly missed Carlos Correa’s head. The ball bounced away and the runners advanced. It was ruled a wild pitch. Correa stared at Kelly.

The at-bat ended with Correa swinging through a curveball for strike three. He and Kelly exchanged words as Kelly walked off the field. Kelly stuck his tongue out at Correa. He mocked him with a pout. He sprinkled obscenities around the faces.

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