Dodgers blow most of 13-run lead, still outlast Angels 14-11

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers scored 13 runs in two innings to take a massive mid-game lead. Over the next two innings, they gave 10 of it back to the Los Angeles Angels.

The way the World Series champions' rocky title defense has been going for the past three weeks, perhaps it's no surprise they couldn't claim their first win in six days without some sort of energy-draining drama.

The Dodgers still came out of Angel Stadium smiling.

“You don’t want that to happen, but I think beggars can’t be choosers right now,” Mookie Betts said. "We’ll take any win that we can get.”

Betts drove in a season-high four runs and the Dodgers held on for a 14-11 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night, snapping their four-game losing streak in hair-raising fashion.

“We needed a win, so there was a lot more good that came out of tonight than bad,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

But the highest-scoring game in Freeway Series history got that way in bizarre circumstances. After neither team managed a hit in the first three innings, the Dodgers went up 13-0 in the fifth, only to watch their bullpen surrender 11 runs to the Angels by the seventh.

Just when the Angels could realistically think about the largest comeback in major league history — the biggest lead ever blown is 12 runs — the Dodgers' bullpen retired their final seven batters. Victor Gonzalez pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and Blake Treinen threw a perfect ninth for his first save.

Clayton Kershaw (5-3) pitched five innings of two-hit ball on three days’ rest for the Dodgers, who emerged from a three-week funk for just their fifth win in 19 games. Corey Seager had three of the Dodgers’ 17 hits in their seventh win over the Halos in eight meetings over the past two seasons.

“All the wins count the...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Dodgers-blow-most-of-13-run-lead-still-outlast-16163003.php