Howie Kendrick broke his bat on his game-winning two-run single on Tuesday night. And with his bat, he broke the hearts of the Seattle Mariners.
Kendrick hit a two-run single off Seattle closer Fernando Rodney with one out in the bottom of the ninth and the Los Angeles Dodgers came from behind to defeat the Mariners 6-5 for the second consecutive night.
“It’s always good to come through for your teammates,” said a smiling Kendrick after the game.
It was the second walk-off victory for LA in as many nights, and their second come from behind victory after the 6th inning this season. By comparison, the Dodgers were 2-54 all of last season when trailing entering the 7th inning.
“We’ve had some games early this year where we’ve come back from deficits and tied the game up and went on to win,” added Kendrick. “All of that keeps building and building. Anytime you’re down, guys will start believing that we can always come back. Past couple of days we’ve been able to do that.”
The Dodgers’ day started with some scrambling to find a starting pitcher. Left-hander David Huff, who was signed as a free agent in the offseason, was called up from AAA Oklahoma City before the game.
Huff is a native of Los Angeles and grew up a Dodgers fan. He attended college at UCLA and grew up in nearby Irvine. Huff had not started a major league game since September of 2013 with the New York Yankees, and had plenty of butterflies pitching for the Dodgers in front of his hometown.
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“I tried to be calm, cool and collected,” said Huff. “Pitching here before on the opposing side helped, so it was too different.”
Nerves got the better of Huff in the first inning as he gave up back-to-back homers to Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz. Before you could say, “Lando Calrissian,” the Mariners had an early 3 to nothing lead.
“I didn’t have all my pitches working for me tonight,” continued Huff. “I left a few pitches up and they obviously capitalized on them.”
Cruz tied his career-high with four consecutive games with a home run. He now has three homers in two days against the Dodgers. After starting the season 1-for-15, Cruz is 7-for-16 since with five homers and eight RBIs.
Huff allowed four runs on seven hits in four innings in his Dodgers debut.
“Hopefully I’ll get another chance,” he said. “I haven’t heard anything yet, but they usually keep me in the dark.”
Adrian Gonzalez continued his hot start to the season with an RBI double to right field in the third inning. Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to ten games and has reached base two or more times in every game this season.
Alex Guerrero did again for the Dodgers in the bottom half of the 4th inning. The star of LA’s last two games, hit a pinch-hit two-run home run off of Hisashi Iwakuma.
“I feel very confident right now,” said Guerrero. “I was happy to have helped my team and contribute in that situation.”
It was a week of firsts for Guerrero as he hit his first career homer on Sunday, his first walk-off hit on Monday and his first pinch-hit home run on Tuesday.
Iwakuma allowed four runs on six hits with five strikeouts over five innings.
Andre Ethier brought the Dodgers closer in the sixth when the outfielder hit a frozen rope that wrapped inside the right field foul pole. It was Ethier’s first home run of the season and 146th of his career, good for 10th on the Dodgers all-time home run list.
Yimi Garcia (2-0) worked a perfect ninth for his second consecutive win on the season.
Rodney (0-1) blew his first save of the season. Last season’s major league leader in saves (48), gave up back-to-back singles to Justin Turner and Jimmy Rollins before inducing Carl Crawford into a fielder’s choice.
With runners at first and second and one out, Rodney wanted nothing to do with NL Player of the Week, Adrian Gonzalez. Rodney walked Gonzalez on five pitches to load the bases for Kendrick who sent the next pitch he saw to right field for the walk-off win.
“I knew he [Kendrick] was going to swing, but the pitch was up a little bit in the zone and that’s why he took the ball the other way,” said Rodney. “I tried to throw the sinker in to try and get a ground ball and get out of the inning, but they got me tonight.”
Game Notes:
It was Star Wars night at Dodger Stadium. Darth Vader, Storm Troopers and R2-D2 were walking around the stadium taking pictures with fans. Yasiel Puig did not play in the game with a hamstring injury.
