Arizona Diamondbacks vs Los Angeles Dodgers Box Score on Oct 06, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Oct 7, 2017

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Since "Mr. October" is already taken, they'll just have to come up with another nickname for Justin Turner.

Granted, Turner has not played in a single World Series game, so any comparison to Reggie Jackson would fall a little short. But the Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman is putting together some impressive postseason numbers.

Turner cracked a three-run home run in the first inning, propelling the Dodgers to a 9-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the National League Division Series Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

Turner finished with the home run, two singles, a walk, five RBIs and a run scored, continuing his postseason prowess that began in 2014. In 19 career postseason games, Turner is hitting .383 (23 for 60) with three homers, 17 RBIs, six doubles and a triple.

Turner's home run led to a four-run first inning against Diamondbacks starter Taijuan Walker (0-1), giving Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw an early cushion. Kershaw (1-0) gave up just five hits in 6 1/3 innings, but four of the hits were solo home runs.

A.J. Pollock homered in the third inning and J.D. Martinez homered in the sixth. But when Ketel Marte and Jeff Mathis hit back-to-back homers with one out in the seventh, Kershaw was finished for the night.

Kershaw struck out seven, five of which came in the first two innings, and walked three, earning the victory and improving his career postseason mark to 5-7.

Relievers Tony Watson and Brandon Morrow bridged the gap to the ninth, where Kenley Jansen gave up an unearned run but closed it out.

Chris Taylor reached based twice (single, walk) and scored twice, while Corey Seager reached base three times (walk, single and triple) scored three times and drove in two.

Besides his home run, Martinez had two singles for Arizona.

The first five hitters reached and the Dodgers took a 3-0 lead when Turner got hold of a 93-mph fastball over the middle of the plate and hit it into the left-field bleachers.

After Cody Bellinger singled, Puig hit a bullet that one-hopped the wall in right-center for a double. Bellinger scored from first on the play to make it 4-0.

Walker wound up striking out the side in the inning, but faced nine hitters while making 48 pitches and did not take the mound for the second inning.

The Diamondbacks got their first hit off Kershaw with two outs in the third inning when Pollock homered to cut the lead to 4-1.

The Dodgers increased their lead to 7-1 in the fourth inning on RBI singles by Seager and Turner and an RBI groundout by Puig off Arizona reliever Zack Godley.

NOTES: Despite having 59 career postseason games under his belt, Dodgers 2B Chase Utley was not in the starting lineup, INF Logan Forsythe getting the nod despite never having played in a postseason game. "Well, obviously I don't think we could have made a wrong decision," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained. "I think there is a tick better defense from Logan. You've got your ace (Kershaw) on the mound and the ability to have Chase on the bench to use him at any point in time to impact the game, I think holds huge value. ... Diamondbacks C Jeff Mathis started instead of regular C Chris Iannetta, leaving some to wonder if some friction between Walker and Iannetta might have had something to do with manager Torey Lovullo's decision. Lovullo, though, dismissed it. "I know certain things you may have seen throughout the course of the year would give you the feeling that is wasn't a great relationship," Lovullo said, "but believe it or not it's a strong, kind of pushing forward type of relationship. It really was not a big factor for me." ... Spotted in the Dodger Stadium crowd for the game were Vin Scully, Tom Hanks, Rob Lowe and Will Ferrell.