OC Register: Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman reclaim lead for Dodgers in win

[AngelsWin.com]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It has become a difficult place to play – even if it is still easy to get tickets.

The Tampa Bay Rays’ best record in baseball has been largely built indoors. They went into Saturday’s game 25-5 at Tropicana Field, where the team’s persistent success in recent years has swelled attendance to an average of just over 17,000 fans a game this season. Four teams draw fewer and the Rays don’t even have to count the actual rays in the ‘Touch Tank’ at Tropicana Field to pad the total.

It was touch and go on the field Saturday. But Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman drove in the tying and go-ahead runs as the Dodgers reclaimed a lost lead in the seventh inning and hung on for a 6-5 victory.

The go-ahead rally started at the bottom of the Dodgers’ order with a single by Miguel Rojas. He moved up on a wild pitch and scored on Betts’ RBI single. Betts stole second and trotted home with the go-ahead run when Freeman lined a double into the left-center field gap.

Freeman was on base four times in the game (two walks, two doubles) and extended his hitting streak to 16 games.

May has been a much more trying month for the National League’s Pitcher of the Month in April.

For the first time since his rookie season 15 years ago, Clayton Kershaw had back-to-back starts of four innings or less. He went to the bereavement list after the death of his mother. And Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made mention of Clayton Kershaw dealing with “body fatigue.”

In his final start of the month Saturday, things got only marginally better. He allowed two hits and walked one in the first three innings but stranded all three runners.

The Dodgers had built a 3-0 lead by then. But a leadoff walk in the fourth signaled trouble. Two batters later, Christian Bethancourt doubled to left field and Manuel Margot ripped a single through the middle to drive in two runs.

An inning later, Kershaw gave up a one-out single to Wander Franco then left a first-pitch fastball to Harold Ramirez up in the zone. Ramirez lined it over the wall in right field for a two-run home run that gave the Rays the lead.

Kershaw was 5-1 in April with a 1.89 ERA while holding hitters to a .175 batting average. In five starts in May, he is 1-3 with a 5.55 ERA and hitters are hitting .313 against him.

Max Muncy’s May has been just as bad. Playing through a lingering illness that featured a persistent cough and sapped his energy, Muncy’s average had sunk below .200.

He homered in the first game of this 10-game road trip in St. Louis but was 2 for 27 before hitting another solo home run leading off the second inning against Tyler Glasnow. Two innings later, Muncy followed J.D. Martinez’s double with one of his own and eventually scored on a wild pitch to build that 3-0 lead.

That disappeared into the right-field seats with Ramirez’s homer. But the Dodgers scored twice in the seventh and added a solo home run by Miguel Vargas in the eighth.

Caleb Ferguson put the tying runs on base with two outs in the ninth and survived a loud foul – a potential game-tying two-run home run by Yandy Diaz. The Rays scored once before Ferguson got Ramirez to bounce out and end the game.

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[Angel Oracle]

The beginning of the MLB career end for 35 year-old Kershaw?

[T.G.]

DodgersWin?

[bruin5]

Do I have to pay an additional amount so that my Dodgers news is ad free as well? 

[TurboFan]

Don’t care about the Dodgers. 

[WicketMaiden]

Worst. Thread. Ever.

[greginpsca]

Screw the dodgers.

 

[Chuck]

How the F did this get fed into my website. 

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