CLEVELAND _ Cody Bellinger became the first player to homer off Cleveland Indians star reliever Andrew Miller in 2017, Clayton Kershaw gutted through seven innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers secured a 7-5 series opening victory at Progressive Field.
Bellinger supplied enough power to lift a hanging slider over the right-field fence and break a deadlock in the eighth inning. Miller had faced 121 batters this year and kept each man in the park. Bellinger was the first left-handed hitter to take Miller deep since Minnesota Twins first baseman Joe Mauer did so on Aug. 1, 2016.
As insurance, an inning later, Bellinger deposited another slider, this one from left-handed reliever Boone Logan, in the right-field seats. The three-run shot gave him 17 home runs on the season. He has hit multiple homers in a game four times this season. Only two other Dodgers rookies have accomplished such a feat _ Mike Piazza in 1993 and Corey Seager in 2016.
The Dodgers were forced to use Kenley Jansen in a save situation despite taking a five-run lead into the ninth. Chris Hatcher gave up a three-run homer to 31-year-old journeyman Daniel Robertson.
Kershaw operated with insufficient command of his fastball, too often either sending the pitch over the heart of the plate or outside the strike zone. He still held the Indians to a pair of runs on six hits. He logged seven innings for the seventh time in eight games.
The Dodgers (40-25) struck first. Appearing in an American League park for the first time this season, Yasiel Puig fell to the No. 9 spot in the batting order. He came up with two outs and a runner aboard in the second inning. Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer pumped a 1-1 fastball down the middle. Puig drove the baseball beyond the center-field fence.
The Indians responded with pressure on Kershaw. In the first inning, he had wriggled free from a jam after a leadoff double by second baseman Jason Kipnis. Kershaw answered by procuring three outs in six pitches.
Kershaw could not repeat that sequence in the third. He got punished for an inside fastball to Robertson, who doubled into the left-field corner. Kershaw secured two quick outs, but fell behind outfielder Michael Brantley. In a 2-0 count, Kershaw allowed a fastball to drift over the middle. Brantley stroked it into right for an RBI single.
The faulty fastball command hurt Kershaw again in the fifth. He opened the inning with a slider and a curveball for a strike against Indians catcher Roberto Perez. Perez entered the evening with a .139 batting average, but he still hung around to run the count full. A 93-mph fastball split the plate in half. Perez bashed it over the elevated fence in left to tie the game. It was Perez's first home run of the season.
Kershaw kept leaving fastballs in the zone. Kipnis followed Perez by banging a one-out double off the wall. Kershaw walked Brantley by spraying fastballs and sliders in the dirt. An escape hatch appeared when Kershaw jammed Cleveland first baseman Carlos Santana with a slider and induced a pop-up to end the inning.
An appearance by Miller, Cleveland's lanky, left-handed relief ace, spoiled a Dodgers rally in the sixth. The team chased Bauer from the game after a leadoff double by Bellinger plus walks by Logan Forsythe and Joc Pederson. With the bases loaded and two out, Indians manager Terry Francona assigned Miller to face Puig.
Miller is the rare reliever who resides on the same plane as Kenley Jansen. Unlike Jansen, though, Miller does not close. He arrives mid-game, whenever danger arises, and almost always, snuffs out the danger. He spotted a slider inside for one strike against Puig. Miller zipped a 97-mph fastball past Puig for another. The last pitch was another slider, down and in, snapping underneath Puig's swing to strand three Dodgers.
Bellinger would have more success with Miller two innings later.
