Dodgers 8, Astros 7: Balk baffles Houston in ugly loss to L.A.
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LOS ANGELES — A late lead devolved into incredulity and an ugly loss Saturday evening as the Astros fell 8-7 to the Dodgers, who rallied for three runs in a strange eighth inning at Dodger Stadium.
The go-ahead run scored when reliever Ryne Stanek was called for a balk as he stepped off the mound in a full count to Miguel Rojas with two outs and runners on second and third. Stanek turned to second base umpire Junior Valentine, who called the balk, with both hands held out in confusion. The Astros yelled from their dugout to no avail.
After Stanek struck out Michael Busch to end the inning, he turned and barked at Valentine, who ejected him. Pitching coach Josh Miller came from the dugout to restrain Stanek. Manager Dusty Baker also left the dugout and he was ejected by home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez after an extended talk.
It was the first balk called on Stanek in his major-league career. Baker said after the game he had not received an explanation for the balk call. Stanek said Valentine “said I moved my leg. Which is pretty obvious, ’cause I stepped off the mound. I wholeheartedly disagree.”
“I thought he stepped off,” Baker said. “I don’t know what explanation, you’ve got to get it from the umpire. But he walked away. At least stick around and give somebody an explanation.”
It capped a frustrating game for the Astros, who led 7-3 after six innings. Alex Bregman’s grand slam off of Dodgers rookie Bobby Miller keyed Houston’s five-run fifth inning.
Held to three hits in the opener, the Astros struck 13 to support starter Ronel Blanco, who struggled early but settled in to throw six strong innings.
Houston trailed 3-0 after one inning. Will Smith and Jason Heyward homered in the first against Blanco, who gave up no other hits and worked six innings for a quality start. Miller, making his sixth major-league start, limited the Astros to an RBI single by Jose Altuve until the fifth.
Corey Julks opened it with a single, Jake Meyers walked and Altuve beat out a push-bunt for an infield hit. That brought up Bregman, along with Altuve the lone holdovers from the 2017 World Series on the active roster, their every at-bat this weekend greeted by jeers and boos.
Bregman briefly quelled them, lining a 2-2 pitch over the left-field wall for his sixth career grand slam. Bregman has eight plate appearances with the bases loaded this year — he is 6-for-7 with three extra-base hits and 17 RBIs in those situations.
Yainer Diaz added an RBI single as the Astros sent 10 men to the plate in the inning. But with the bases loaded and one out, the Astros could not add onto the lead, which proved costly even after José Abreu extended it to 7-3 with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
“There’s more runs there for us,” Baker said. “And I’ve been here many times, I played here. You’ve got to put them away.”
Phil Maton inherited that lead in the seventh. Maton hit his first batter, Heyward. The third he faced, pinch-hitter David Peralta, drove a first-pitch curveball over the right-field wall for a two-run home run.
Hector Neris entered to face Mookie Betts with a man on second and two outs. Neris used two pitches to retire Betts. But Neris did not return for the eighth. Bryan Abreu entered and issued walks to his first three batters. Heyward’s sacrifice fly cut Houston’s lead to one.
James Outman erased it entirely. Outman got a 3-1 slider over the heart of the plate and lined it to right field. The Astros briefly caught a break, as it bounced into a section of netting in the right-field wall for a ground-rule double. That scored the tying run but stopped the go-ahead run at third – until Stanek’s balk.
“I thought we swung the bat really well,” Bregman said. “Blanco had three good pitches working, was able to settle down after the first. … And then, yeah, everybody saw the last two innings.”
Blanco bounces back
Blanco’s best pitch is a slider that he was throwing more than 50 percent of the time entering Saturday. He’d thrown his four-seam fastball just 39 percent of the time. He opened the game with a heavy dose of fastballs, though, and the Dodgers pounced. Smith and Heyward homered on four-seamers. Betts hit a fastball 359 feet to left and was robbed of a leadoff home run by Julks’ leaping catch at the wall.
Hitters owned a .395 average against Blanco’s fastball entering the game. He turned his outing around by going away from it. Blanco threw 11 fastballs in the first inning. He totaled just 20 over the next five, leaning on the slider and mixing in change-ups. Blanco faced 17 more hitters after Heyward’s home run and retired all but one, a two-out walk to Busch in the fifth inning.
“I was trying to attack the hitters with my first pitch and get strike one and mix my pitches up,” Blanco said through an interpreter.
Blanco threw 58 sliders on 99 pitches. The Dodgers swung at 37 and not one of those swings produced a hit. Blanco induced 13 whiffs on sliders and totaled six strikeouts. Home runs have been a problem for him. In his four Astros starts, Blanco has surrendered seven homers.
Abreu contributes
After sitting out the last two games for a “reset” amid his first-half struggles, Abreu had an encouraging day at the plate with two hits and a sacrifice fly.
One troubling aspect of Abreu’s season are his hard-hit metrics. Abreu’s 88.8 mph average exit velocity entering Saturday was down from 92.2 mph last season and his 91.2 mph career rate. His 40.5 percent hard-hit rate was down from 51.8 percent last year. Four of the five balls Abreu put into play were above the 95 mph hard-hit threshold Saturday. After Kyle Tucker singled to open the ninth, Abreu struck a 101.7 mph grounder that resulted in a double play.
Source: Houston Chronicle
