That’s painful: Dodgers let one slip away with two outs in the ninth, fall 5-4 to Marlins
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Momentum can come from a lot of places and the Dodgers went to several Monday. Turns out, they needed to find one more.
The kids came through, the old guy who looks like a kid came through, the struggling first baseman drove in the winning run and the veteran pitcher shined.
It was looking like it would add up to a 4-3 victory when Jonathan Broxton came on in the ninth and quickly recorded two outs.
Even after a walk and a single put runners at the corners, it seemed the Dodgers would escape with the victory when Scott Cousins hit a routine grounder to shortstop Jamey Carroll.
Only Carroll missed the ball for an error as Florida tied the score, 4-4. Then after an intentional walk loaded the bases, Omar Infante hit a line drive to rookie Jerry Sands in left field.
Sands misjudged the ball, took several steps in, then broke back, only for the ball to sail over his glove for the game-winning hit, the Marlins escaping with a 5-4 victory.
It added up to one of the Dodgers’ toughest losses this season, a seemingly sure victory vanishing with two outs in the ninth on walks, an error and a misplayed final ball.
Things had been going so well for the Dodgers to that point, the loss was fairly stunning. Sands had his first three-hit game, rookie Ivan DeJesus Jr. his first multi-hit game, 37-year-old Carroll singled in the go-head run and James Loney drove in what appeared to be the winning run, to support a second consecutive strong start by Jon Garland.
For Broxton, it made for his first blown save in six opportunities.
Garland pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on identical home runs by Chris Coghlan on identical pitches.
Otherwise, he was a pitcher in control. He gave up four hits, walked one and struck out four. This on the heels of his last outing, a four-hitter against Atlanta.
Andre Ethier singled in the first inning to push his career-high hitting streak to 22 games.
Sands and Aaron Miles joined Carroll and Loney in driving in runs for the Dodgers.
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-- Steve Dilbeck