Dodgers strike early, hold off Rockies 5-2

The Colorado Rockies were looking to get back into the win column Friday night as Jon Gray took the hill. Oddly enough, Colorado’s ace lasted just four innings, needing 106 pitches to do so.

Jon Gray ran into a bit of trouble in the bottom half of the first inning; that’s just to put it lightly. After striking out Chase Utley to start the bottom half of the frame, Gray walked Corey Seager, hit Justin Turner with a pitch, and then walked Adrian Gonzalez. With the bases loaded and one out, Yasmani Grandal hit Gray’s 3-2 offering, blooping it just in front of the right fielder Carlos Gonzalez to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Gray would then settle down, striking out both Josh Reddick and Andrew Toles to erase the damage.

As if the game wasn’t interesting enough, Dodgers’ starter Scott Kazmir left the game just after one inning of work due to intercostal spasms — Kazmir was reinstated off the disabled list prior to Friday night’s contest. Right-handed pitcher Ross Stripling would then replace Kazmir.

The bottom half of the second inning was much better for Gray, easily his best inning of the night. The Wolf of Blake Street would strike out the side despite walking the pitcher, Ross Stripling.

Colorado had something cooking in the top half of the third inning, yet couldn’t quite convert on the opportunity. On a 2-2 offering, DJ LeMahieu fought off Stripling’s fastball into shallow right field as Josh Reddick made a spectacular diving play to save a run, keeping Rockies’ shortstop Cristhian Adames stranded at third base.

Perhaps the most influential inning of the night, the fourth inning, the Dodgers hit back-to-back home runs, coming off the bats of Joc Pederson, his 24th of the season, and pinch-hitter Andre Either, his 1st believe it or not. Those two solo-shots gave the Dodgers a commanding 4-0 lead. Gray would then strike out Chase Utley to finish the side, marking the end of his night at 106 pitches.

Nolan Arenado put the first run on the board for the Rockies, clubbing his 40th home run of the season on a 1-1 offering from Josh Fields, depositing the ball into the left field bleachers to reduce Los Angeles’ lead to three. Colorado wasn’t done in the top half of the sixth inning, as catcher Tom Murphy hit a sharp single up the middle, plating David Dahl to bring the score within two. Unfortunately, that was the last run Colorado would score on the night.

The Dodgers added one more in the bottom half of the seventh inning off of Carlos Estevez. On the very first pitch of his at-bat, Adrian Gonzalez went down and hit a fastball to centerfield, scoring Utley from third to push the Dodgers’ lead to 5-2.