Starting pitchers this afternoon were righthander Kenta Maeda (Los Angeles) and lefthander Gio Gonzalez (Washington).
Maeda was 16-11 this season with a 3.48 ERA.
The 28-year old Japanese righthander signed for eight years with the Dodgers in January.
He signed a 25 million dollar contract with all kinds of incentives, which can make it a 90 million dollar-plus contract in the end.
In his first Major League-season, Maeda struckout 179 batters in 175 2/3 inning.
Maeda didn't pitch against Washington this season.
Gonzalez was 11-11 with a 4.57 ERA in the 2016 season.
This year, the lefthander threw one game against the Dodgers in July and he was the winning pitcher then, allowing three hits in six innings.
In his career, Gonzalez is 3-1 against the Dodgers.
Today was his fourth postseason-start.
He started his last one in 2014 in the NLDS against San Francisco Giants.
In the top of the first inning, Washington got the bases loaded off of Kenta Maeda
With one out, he gave up a single to Jayson Werth.
With two outs, Maeda walked Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon with some of the pitches appearing close to the strikezone.
With the bases loaded, Maeda ended the scoring threat by striking out Ryan Zimmerman.
...Kenta Maeda pitched for Team Japan in Round 2 of the...
...World Baseball Classic 2013 in Tokyo (Japan) against...
...the Netherlands; Japan won the game, 16-4...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Before coming to the Major League, Maeda pitched eight seasons for Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the Japanese big league.
There, he played in five All Star Games and won the Golden Glove Award five times.
He also won the Eiji Sawamura Award twice, which is handed out annually to the best pitcher.
In 2010, Maeda became the youngest pitcher in Japanese baseball history to achieve the Pitching Triple Crown, leading the league in Wins, StrikeOuts and ERA.
The Dodgers then opened the score in its first at bat off of Gio Gonzalez.
This season, the Dodgers were in last place with a .214 batting average off of lefthanders.
With one out, Justin Turner walked.
He then scored all the way from first base on a double into deep rightfield off the wall by (lefthanded) Corey Seager, who himself stranded on second base.
Maeda retired the side in the top of the second inning, as did Gonzalez in the bottom of the second.
However, that ended with a challenge.
With two outs, Joc Pederson struckout on what was ruled a foul-tip by Home Plate Umpire Ron Kulpa.
Pederson stated that he was hit on his left forearm and so, a review followed.
But the call was upheld and so, Pederson struckout and the inning ended.
Washington rallied for four runs in the top of the third inning to take the lead.
Trea Turner led off with a single, then scored on a double by Jayson Werth, who advanced to third base on the throw to the plate.
With one out, Werth scored the go-ahead run on a single by Bryce Harper.
Moments later, Harper stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error.
He then scored when Anthony Rendon homered.
With two outs, Danny Espinosa was hit by a pitch with the ball barely grazing his elbow-protection.
It was the third time that Espinosa was hit by a pitch in the Series.
He stranded on first base, as a grounder ended the at bat, but the National were leading 4-1.
Maeda did not return to the mound in the fourth inning.
Los Angeles stranded a runner on third base in the bottom of the third, then was retired in order in the bottom of the fourth.
Washington then stranded two runners in the top of the fifth, but in the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers got back into the game by scoring two runs
With one out, Joc Pederson singled, then pinch-hitter Carlos Ruiz drilled the ball into right-centerfield for a 2-run homerun to cut the deficit to 4-3.
That led to a pitching change, as Gio Gonzalez was replaced by Sammy Solis.
He walked Justin Turner with two outs, but he was left behind.
In the top of the sixth, Washington got close to scoring a run again.
Grant Dayton became the new pitcher for the Dodgers, but he gave up a lead-off single to José Lobaton.
After Dayton followed with a strikeout, he was relieved by Josh Fields, while Pedro Severino was inserted as pinch-runner for Lobaton.
Fields struckout Trea Turner, then walked Jayson Werth, which led to another pitching change.
Luis Avilan became the third pitcher in the inning, but he began with a wild pitch that moved the runners to second and third base.
Avilan then closed the at bat by striking out Daniel Murphy.
Both teams stranded a runner on first base in the seventh inning.
In the top of the ninth inning, closer Kenley Jansen took the mound for the Dodgers in a rare situation.
Mostly, Jansen comes into a game when the Dodgers are leading to throw the ninth inning and close the door.
In the regular season, Jansen earned 47 saves.
Now, Jansen came to the mound with the Dodgers trailing 4-3, which is much different situation for a closer, as this was now a no-save situation.
Jansen's job was to keep the run-difference to only one, but that quickly changed, as he gave up a lead-off homerun into deep left-centerfield to Jayson Werth to make it a 5-3 score.
After giving up the homerun, Jansen walked Daniel Murphy, then hit Bryce Harper with a pitch.
The scoring wasn't over yet, as, with one out, Ryan Zimmerman drilled the ball into rightfield where it appeared to be catchable, but ended up being a 2-run double that increased the lead to 7-3.
It marked the end for Jansen, who was replaced by Ross Stripling.
Zimmerman, who had advanced to third base on the throw to the plate, then scored the fourth run in the inning moment later on a sacrifice fly by Chris Heisey.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Wasington-closer Mark Melancon retired the side to end the game, which lasted four hours and 12 minutes.
And that's only eight minutes short of the longest nine-inning postseason-game in history.
That took four hours and 20 minutes and was Games 3 of the 2004 American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
That game, played in Boston, was won by the Yankees with a 19-8 score and had a total of 37 basehits!
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Washington takes lead in NLDS against Dodgers
LOS ANGELES, California (USA) -
Washington Nationals took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series by winning 8-3 on Monday-evening (October 10) against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Nationals rallied for four runs in both the third and the ninth inning.
All runs in the ninth were credited to closer Kenley Jansen.
One of that runs was a homerun by Jayson Werth, who was 3-for-4, scored twice and batted in two runs.
Los Angeles opened the Series on Friday with a 4-3 win.
On Saturday, the second game was postponed one day due to heavy rain, which was the result of Hurricane Matthew that hit the east-coast of the USA.
On Sunday, the Nationals won 5-2 to even the Series.
After completion of that game, the two teams traveled overnight to Los Angeles for the next game today in California.