Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Maeda regains form, baffles Phils
After floundering for the first month of the season, Kenta Maeda found his form Friday night.
Maeda threw seven solid innings to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3. Maeda (2-2) entered with an 8.05 ERA and had failed to reach the sixth inning in any of his four previous starts.
The second-year righthander struck out a seasonhigh eight and limited Philadelphia to five hits, a walk and two runs as Los Angeles snapped the Phillies’ sixgame winning streak.
“It was great to see Kenta throw the way he did tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He had clarity and he threw with conviction. He kept the ball down and he threw it tight to left-handers. He and Honey (Rick Honeycutt) had an excellent game plan going in and he executed it.”
Maeda said his felt some pressure to perform well tonight.
“It was a great day for me,” Maeda said through a translator. “I’ve had a string of bad outings and I felt the pressure going into the game. I knew I had to pitch well or something could happen. We have a lot of great pitchers.
“I’m very appreciative that Dave let me pitch the seventh inning. Once I got into it, I knew I was going to finish it.”
The Phillies pushed a run across in the eighth against two relievers, but Kenley Jansen struck out the side in the ninth for his sixth save.
Jerad Eickhoff (0-2) gave up nine hits and five runs. It was the first time Eickhoff had given up more than three runs in his last 13 starts.
“It just comes down to the curveball,” Eickhoff said. “I had it in the first inning there and then I just couldn’t find the release point. I struggled with it. I kept them offbalance with the slider and located fastballs. It was kind of frustrating but yeah, just the curveball, I couldn’t put them away.”
Freddy Galvis extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a two-run double to right in the third inning giving the Phillies a 2-0 lead.
Justin Turner extended his career-long hitting streak to 14 games — the longest active hitting streak in the majors — with a firstinning single. Turner had three hits, and his tworun double in the sixth extended the Dodgers’ lead to 5-2.
Enrique Hernandez’s twoout double in the fourth tied the game at 2 and Yasmani Grandal’s RBI sacrifice fly gave Los Angeles a 3-2 lead in the fifth.
Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig was given his first game off of the season.
Two-time Olympic medalist and former UCLA softball standout Natasha Watley threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
The postgame fireworks show was cancelled due to the high winds.
Oops
Galvis’ fourth-inning error on Maeda’s grounder snapped the Phillies’ 25game errorless streak.
Marked Improvement
The Phillies outfield ranks third in the majors with a .291 batting average and a .366 on-base percentage. Last year, Philadelphia’s outfield ranked 27th in baseball with a .242 average and a .311 OBP.
What sophomore slump?
Second-year Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager entered Friday’s game hitting .318 with five homers and 17 RBIs. Seager turned 23 on Thursday and has the third most hits (252) in Dodgers history of any player before reaching his 23rd birthday. Andre Beltre had 466 and Willie Davis had 288.
Trainer’s Room
Phillies: Manager Pete Mackanin said he’s not going to rush veteran Howie Kendrick (right abdominal strain) back to the lineup. “We’re going to be cautious before we activate him.”
Dodgers: Roberts said OF Joc Pederson (strained right groin) “is running and taking swings and looks good.” He could return next Friday at San Diego.