In game two of this weekend’s much-ballyhooed Freeway Series, base hits were still in short supply as they were in Friday night’s tilt, and the scoring was minimal, showing us that these two so cal megalopolis teams are quite well matched and capable of putting on some nail-biters. The Dodgers and Angels both had four hits, and starters Ross Stripling and Deck McGuire (the latter being a fill-in arm and thus needing the help of his reliever core, of course) were in no mood to let things get out of hand.
Sadly, the bigger plays would fall in the favor of the boorish Dodgers, who put two on the scoreboard via Justin Turner’s two-run single off of reliever Taylor Cole in the fifth. Mike Trout would answer Turner’s hit with a powerful home run to center field, his 25th of the season, but alas it was only a solo shot and had the game at 2-1. Speaking of Trout, he accounted for three of the Halos’ four hits this entire contest, so that shows you just how quiet the rest of their lineup was against the Brooklyn transplants.
A Yasiel Puig home run in the top of the ninth, hit off of home run giver-upper Noe Ramirez, made the score 3-1, and effectively ended the game right then and there. The score would remain unchanged after the bottom of the frame, and the two rivals would find themselves heading into Sunday with a rubber match on deck.
If only there were more Mike Trouts in the world.