The Dodgers have been an unwatchable mess for over three weeks now having lost 16 out of their last 21 games. Tuesday night’s series opener against the Seattle Mariners seemed like another usual Dodger loss. The club fell behind early when starter Walker Buehler allowed four earned runs, and the offense could only muster one run (on a Max Muncy homer) through six lifeless frames. But tonight, ended differently thank god. The Dodgers actually rallied for two runs in the seventh and three more in the bottom of the eighth. The big blow came from Gavin Lux. The super kid finally delivered with a three-run job that crushed the Mariners hopes and put the Dodgers in the lead for good. The bullpen hung onto the lead for once, as Garrett Cleavinger pitched a clean inning and Kenley Jansen didn’t blow the save. The Dodgers won 6-4.
Lux showed us his best at-bat of the year. The young second baseman has only tallied two hits at Dodger Stadium the entire season before tonight’s game against Seattle. He had two on Tuesday including the go-ahead three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth off of Rafael Montero that landed several rows up the right field pavilions. Lux was hitting just .209 entering the game, and that was his first home run of the season. Here’s hoping this gives them some confidence and they can I don’t know, maybe win a series.
Wow. What a welcome sight. A Dodger win! It is just one game, as they still need to improve on many things. Buehler pitched a nice game, but as with our starters, they are prone to serving up the dreaded dingers. The opponents seem take advantage of every bad pitch, while the Dodger hitters more often than not, miss the meatballs…. merely popping them up, or striking out. 15 KO’s last night. Totally unacceptable. Maybe Jack in the Box should have said that if the Dodger batters strike out more than 10 times, the free Jumbo Jack awarded if the Dodger pitchers strike out 10 opponents, is voided out.
RISP is still unacceptable, 2-9 last night, with 6 LOB.
Bright spots:
1) Relief pitching did their job for a change. Cleavinger and Jansen looked sharp.
2) Muncy and Lux tore the cover off the baseball.
3) Chris Taylor has been the most consistent, offensively.
A win is a win, and we must take them when we can, because as you say, Scott, they have been very hard to watch lately.