With one out, the bases loaded, and the Dodgers down 3-0 to the Tampa Bay Rays in the top of the sixth inning, former Dodgers outfielder and current Dodgers broadcaster Rick Monday said: “Don’t hit it on the ground,” as Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández stepped into the batters box at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Rays temporary ballpark while their new stadium is under construction in Tampa.
On a 2-0 count, 31-year-old former Dodger and current Rays left-hander Garrett Cleavinger grooved a 95.3-mph sinker right down Broadway, which Hernández hit “…on the ground,” for a devastating (and spirit-crushing) 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. It was the Dodgers single best opportunity to score a run, which they did not.
(SportsNet LA)
The NL West first-place Dodgers would go on to be shutout by the AL East fourth-place Rays by a score of 4-0, having gone 1-for-2 with runners in scoring position and stranding four runners on base, including those three by Hernández, where anything hit out of the infield would have scored a run.
Fortunately, the news wasn’t all bad on Saturday. As luck would have it, the NL West second-place San Diego Padres and third-place San Francisco Giants also lost on Saturday, keeping them 3.0 games and 9.0 games back respectively, so there’s that.
More good news. Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy went 3-for-3 with a RBI in his fourth rehab game with the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate OKC Comets on Saturday. This past week Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters that Muncy’s return could happen sooner that initially thought. The 34-year-old Midland, TX native was placed on the 10-day IL on July 3 after suffering a bone bruise to his left knee in a collision with White Sox outfielder Michael A. Taylor at The Hot Corner.
Play Ball!
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