OC Register: Angels drag Dodgers into extra innings, hand them a 4-3 loss in 10th

[AngelsWin.com]

LOS ANGELES — The Angels had them just where they wanted them.

The Angels lured the Dodgers into their dark alley – extra innings – and roughed them up for two runs in the 10th inning, becoming the latest team to beat them in bonus time, 4-3, on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

The win was the Angels’ third in four Freeway Series games this year and extended their recent winning streak to four games, keeping the dwindling embers of their wild-card hopes warm.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers – now a shocking 1-12 in extra innings (64-33 in regulation) – can make no headway against the NL West-leading Giants. And they couldn’t make it to Trea Turner’s debut in the lineup Saturday with the rest of it intact.

Mookie Betts left the game with a return of the hip pain that landed him on the injured list for 10 days.

Playing his fourth game in six days since coming off the IL (first in the outfield), Betts looked to be in discomfort after he scored from third base on a ground out in the first inning but stayed in the game until the seventh when Billy McKinney briefly replaced him in right field.

The Dodgers could have had the game in hand by then.

They had Angels starter Patrick Sandoval on the ropes for much of his five innings but failed to land a knockout blow, going 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position against the lefty.

In the first, Betts led off with a single and Justin Turner doubled to right field, putting runners at second and third with no outs. The Dodgers got just one run out of that – on a weak groundout by Albert Pujols, a small measure of revenge for Pujols in his first time facing the Angels since they released him in May.

In the third, a walk and a single (by Pujols) put two runners on with two outs but Sandoval got Corey Seager to pop out.

In the fifth, Sandoval walked AJ Pollock and gave up back-to-back singles to David Price and Betts with two outs, the latter scoring a run. But Turner flew out to end that inning.

The Dodgers could do nothing with a leadoff double by Max Muncy in the fifth either.

The Angels, on the other hand, took the direct route.

They had just four hits off Price but two of them were home runs, solo shots by Jose Iglesias in the fifth and Jack Mayfield in the sixth. It was Mayfield’s seventh home run since the All-Star break. Only Toronto’s George Springer (eight) has hit more.

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The score stayed tied through nine innings – so the Angels had the Dodgers just where they wanted them.

Two pitches into the 10th, Iglesias poked a double into right field off Garrett Cleavinger, cashing in the free runner. After intentionally walking Shohei Ohtani, a ground out moved the runners up. One scored when Muncy couldn’t make an over-the-shoulder catch of Mayfield’s pop-up to shallow right field.

It was the 14th consecutive extra inning in which the Dodgers have allowed at least one run.

The Dodgers did cash in their free runner in the bottom of the 10th on a single by Muncy and a sacrifice fly by Seager. But AJ Pollock bounced out with two runners on to end the game.

According to ESPN Stats and Info, the Dodgers’ current 11-game losing streak in extra innings is one short of matching the longest single-season losing streak in extra innings set by the expansion Montreal Expos in 1969 (a year in which the Expos lost 110 games overall).

More to come on this story.

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