Dodgers Win And Show a Baseball Movie

By Steven Lieberman

Observer Reporter

Dodger Stadium went “Back to the Future” on a hot, 90 degree movie-night on Saturday as the Dodgers prepared to battle the Reds in the third game of their four-game series.

After lead actress Lea Thompson was honored with the ceremonial first pitch and Doc Brown’s famous time-traveling DeLorean took a spin around the field in a puff of smoke, the Dodgers would go on to dominate the Reds with a 8-3 win.

The baseball was “Mcflying” out of the ballpark for the Dodgers after a “bolt of lightning” struck, electrifying their bats with “1.21 gigawatts of power.” Enough maximum power for four players to hit home-runs.

In the second inning, Yasiel Puig hit a leadoff homer and Kike Hernandez crushed a two-out, three-run blast. In the third inning, Justin Turner led off with a solo homer and then in the fourth, Adrian Gonzalez hit his team-leading 24th homer, a solo shot, as he homered for the second consecutive game.

Reds starting pitcher David Holmberg, crumbled like a stale cookie and lasted only 2.0+ innings, allowing three of the four Dodgers home-runs and a total of seven runs. It was the shortest start of his career.

“I was not pleased with my performance tonight,” Holmberg said. “I would have liked to have kept the 2-0 lead we had. I was not getting ahead of guys. I wasn’t throwing a lot of strikes or quality pitches. That’s not how you get guys out.”

Reds manager Bryan Price also echoed what Holmberg said.

“I would call it just a bad game,” he said. “He just didn’t have it tonight, didn’t have a feel for his location. He didn’t have great stuff and the Dodgers took advantage of it.”

Brett Anderson, the Dodgers starting pitcher, went six innings and got his seventh win of the season with the help of closer Chris Hatcher. Anderson allowed a two-run home run to Todd Frazier in the first inning, but allowed only one run in the next five as the Dodgers’ offense gave him support.

“From that point forward, he really recovered and kept battling,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “I thought he was solid for us. It’s kind of what he’s been doing. He kept us in the game.”

Mattingly also spoke about the four home runs.

“Whoever I’m putting in there has been swinging the bat good,” he said. “It’s a good problem to have.”

One other notable for the Dodgers was Carl Crawford. He reached base in all four plate appearances, going 2-for-2 with two walks. Since returning from the DL on July 21, Crawford is batting .353 (12-for-34) with two doubles, a homer and seven RBI in 19 games.

The Dodgers are happy Crawford “got back in time.”