The Dodgers, newly restored in first place after beating the Brewers in extra innings last night, returned to battle Milwaukee again, and this time with a recently rejuvenated Clayton Kershaw on the mound.
After a lethargic past few days, the Dodgers offense roared back to life tonight, starting things off with a Joc Pederson home run in the first inning. Manny Machado go the boys on the board again in the second with a single, a stolen base, and a dash home on a Milwaukee error.
The big Dodgers fireworks came in the third inning, when Cody Bellinger bounced a long fly ball off the RF foul pole for a grand slam. Then Yasiel Puig took the first pitch of the seventh and blasted it into the Dodgers’ bullpen, putting the boys ahead 7-1.
Meanwhile, Kershaw was cruising, despite giving up a first inning run. In the fifth, he gave up a solo HR to Christian Yelich.
Turned out that was just a gnat on the Dodgers’ shoulder, as Brian Dozier blasted a three-run HR in the bottom of the fifth (his second home run in as many nights). The boys were up 10-2 with half a game to go.
Justin Turner, fresh off the disabled list, got in on the action as well. He went deep to centerfield for a solo homerun of his own in the sixth. That put the Dodgers up 11-2, and gave them a home run cycle, with a solo, two and three-run home runs, and a grand slam.
Kershaw was done after 98 pitches and six innt. Eric Goeddel came in for the seventh. With two out, he gave up a couple of singles and a three run home run, to bring the Brewers closer at 12-7.
Just another gnat. After a couple of doubles by Max Muncy and YasielPuig scored a run, Joc Pederson hit his second home run of the night – this one good for three more runs. The Dodgers were up 16-5 and the Brewers went to a position player pitcher.
Perez came in with his 70 mph and the Brewers really fell apart. Errors and mispays in the outfield led to a couple more runs. Yasiel Puig mashed his second home run of the night, and when the inning was over, the Dodgers had scored nine runs and were up 21-5.
Pedro Baez mopped up in the ninth, and the Dodgers sent the Brewers off to Colorado as the answer to the trivia question: “Who were the opponents when the Dodgers set a Dodger Stadium record of 21 runs scored?” (18 hits and 7 home runs.)
Next up: The Astros. The laughing will now stop. Game faces on.
Oscar Martinez
I was born in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and immediately drenched in Dodger Blue. Chavez Ravine is my baseball cathedral, Vin Scully was the golden voice of summer all my life, and Tommy Lasorda remains the greatest Dodgers manager ever. My favorite things are coffee, beer, and the Dodgers beating the Giants. I also blog about my baseball card hobby at All Trade Bait, All the Time.
Follow Me:
Huge win. Hopefully this sets Bellinger off. Turner being back is very important as it moved Taylor to CF.
In other welcome news, Ryu went four innings in a rehab start.
Also, can there no doubt that Baez is probably one of the best, if not the best, reliever in the majors, and maybe in major league history, when there is absolutely no pressure whatsoever. I don’t remember him giving up a single run or even walking anybody (he had no walks in 2 innings tonight) when the game is out of reach either way. He’s just (head-scratchingly) amazing.
So far so good, the exchange of ForShyte for NotShyte has been a real shot in the arm. NotShyte has already surpassed, in two games, what ForShyte did in two seasons (or so it seems), NotShyte is a streaky dude, ride the streak and enjoy, hopefully he can stay streaky for a long long time.
Goeddel, uhh never mind.
Live by the bomb, die by the bomb (that’s still a big problem, a very big problem)
And this is what the “all” looks like. We’ve seen it before. 21 is a bit of a surprise, but pulverizing opposing pitching is something we’ve seen before.
I posted Dozier’s second half splits from ‘16 and ‘17 yesterday. If he can do that again? Yoiks. He looks like a good fit here.
Axford activation means somebody goes. I commission Goeddel to AAA.
Baez is an enigma to me. He has terrific stuff but still gets way too much of the plate with it. Looking at the pitch fx charts on fangraphs is very interesting. His ERA has always been below league average, his velocity is down this year, still mid 90s, but his spray chart suggests he throws too many, about 20%, center cut. His 5×5 chart shows the target he hits most often, out of 25 over and around the plate, is right down the middle. This guy has command issues. How to fix that? Hellifino. Ask Honeycutt. If he could work the edges successfully he would be the 8th inning guy.
Baez is just Mr. Reliable. Reliably great when there’s no pressure. Reliably awful when the pressure is on.
Here’s what I recommend for Baez.
Line up half a step to the right against left handed batters, and line up half a step to the left against right handers. Wear a pair of those flip down sunglasses, except that the shades are real ink black. Against lefties flip one left side down, against lefties keep the right side down, so you always have a skewed perspective of the plate. Then Baez go do what he does best: throwing it as straight as ever, and he will end up painting the corners. Instead of right down the middle.
It might work right? Can it? Should it?
YF
It is mental with Baez that is obvious!
What is not apparent is why the Dodgers have not had him go to a good sport’s psychologist, in the off season.
Why do you think Roberts went out to talk to Baez a few times, to give him confidence, because it is mental.
Since he throws it right down the middle, he should use a Hershiser two seamer. Thumb under forefinger, it dives to the right, thumb under middle finger it dives to the left. Aim it center cut and no way it ends up there. I threw that in the Redwood Empire League as a 50 year old. Only hit about 70 with it, but it induced a lot of ground balls. Baez would be chucking that at about 92. Good luck with that. Give me one afternoon with him and I could teach it to him. Make it a morning session so I can hit the beach in the afternoon. Surf’s up dudes!
It’s a good team.
If you discount or omit the first month, it’s a better than good team.
Are they playing at the Red Sox level? No. Could they? Perhaps if one squints and things break right.
By it’s a year driven by fiscal constraints. Still this type of baseball is not the greatest to me, watching smart plans come together is rewarding though.
Dodgers, despite recent trades, still at 8 in MLB minor league system rankings.
I’m squinting. Don’t see it.
Wait, there it is! Dodgers win Games 2 and 4, 10-6 and 8-5. They get shut out in Games 1 and 3.
Badger
I am glad you pointed that out!
That is quite a stretch, we’re are the numbers that prove that, never mind, there is not a thing to support that!
I am not sure we are even the best team in the National League yet.
Yeah, I may be too hopeful.
True
Your right, living and dying by bombs, is not a recipe for success, because if they are facing top pitching, or they are facing a pitcher having a real good game, they won’t get it done.
I give Cody a lot of credit last night, because after he hit that grand slam, and the game got out of hand, he wasn’t trying to pull everything out of the stadium like a couple players were.
It was good to see him take that ball to left, after his grand slam.
I don’t know that this was total domination either, because the starter the Dodgers was facing, was a pitcher they have seen many times, when he was on the Padres.
And I don’t think the Brewers manager, put his best relief core in that game after a while.
Yeah, we Mercy Rule’d ‘em by the 6th. I think they were looking for the exit at that point.
Houston will present a different challenge.
Badger
I think we see a different starting line up tonight!
I can’t even imagine us facing the Yankees pen, let alone, beating them, in a short series.
But it may be the Astros and the Red Sox, that are harder to beat, because they know how to score more then one way.
I think what’s most heartening is the potential depth in the lineup.
Last year was, for all intents and purpose, a lineup really driven by the top four hitters. Bellinger, Taylor, Turner and Seager.
This year is much broader. With Pederson more consistent and with Grandal (when he’s locked in (which is infuriating, but already discussed ad infinitum)) not to mention Muncy and Puig (to varying degrees.)
I’m most interested to see how the bullpen develops with so many starting pitchers redeployed.
Let’s see what they do against Verlander to night, and the Astros in this next series, before we make baseless comments, that can’t be proved.
And even only one series win over the Astros, wouldn’t prove that!
Like I already said, they had seen a lot of that former Padre’s starter, and the Brewers manager didn’t use his top relief pitchers, that the Dodgers didn’t score much on, in the two previous games.
We have only won two games, after losing three games in a row, and we were almost no hit.
Totally agree on the baseless comments.
Not so sure I agree with the “let’s just wait until the games are played and then we can address what happened!” attitude that is creeping in there. Observations can always be made before the full season has been played.
Kinda hard to observe what hasn’t happened yet. But it’s true….. every day is judgment day.
Bluto
Everyone has a right to make observations, but you are the only one here, that must have numbers or said evidence, if someone makes an observation, not me.
And sometimes people’s emotions get into these observations, and that is just part of being human.
cool.
BIG challenge.
If NotShyte keeps this up, he will be hard to get out of the line-up (however I’m sure Roberts will find a way to cool him down, he’s genius at that [that’s for package]).
So now Turner is back, NotShyte so far looks solid for 2B, Joc has been batting a lot of leadoff and hitting is much improved, Muncy has been raking most of the season, Bellinger has been sucking, Taylor is coming on (finally), Manny is a Mannyac, Puig has come back strong, Kemp still a force, so who sits?
It is just hard for me to get over excited about two games, when I have watched this offense barely get a runner past second at times, and just recently.
And I don’t agree that a team should only have one way to score runs.
And sometimes I think a game like we had last night, can sometimes not be best for a team like the Dodgers, that doesn’t have many players that don’t change their approach, when it is needed.
Because after Cody hit that grand slam last night, the pitchers the Brewers put in the game, were more like batting practice pitchers, then most pitchers this team will face, from game to game.
And even if these pitchers were better then that, they were probably just putting the innings in, at that point.
And that is why I thought what Cody did by hitting the ball oppo, to leftfield, was a good thing.
Because he could have just tried to pull every pitch he got out, after he hit that grand slam, to try to hit everything out of the park, like some players, were doing.
To me that was only one game, and we didn’t win the previous game handedly, either.
Badger
I like Roberts, but I kind of wish we had Alex Cora for our manager, because he has his team doing everything on offense, from stealing bases, to promoting a productive offense, and using all the tools he can, to have the team score runs.
Because we know the players will still hit HRs, that is a given.
And Cora is just doing what the Astros did, to make their team better.
And Bluto is right, the post season can be a crap shoot, but that would be a funnier way, to watch the game.
And I think that is a stronger way, to attack good pitching.
I think both managers are doing what it is their respective players are good at. Roberts has been handed squirrels. Cora has been handed baseball players. That may be an oversimplification, but it may be the least complicated answer too.
Altuve is out on the DL and so as Corera, and Springer might not play either, so that is a bummer.
But I am sure Verlander will give them a good challenge.
It will be interesting to see what we do when we face the Rockies, and the Dbacks again.
I heard the Dbacks had a pretty good pen, now.
Just checked and Vegas says the game will end in a tie. 7 1/2 runs. I’ll take the winner and the over.
Dbacks pen is pretty good. So is the team. We’re better.
Badger
The only thing that surprises me with this line up, is that Muncy is in the line up again tonight.
He was two for thirty, with at least 15 strike outs, during this streak, up until last night.
I feel bad for the guy, but he truly looks like pitchers are dominating him up at the plate now.
And you know I don’t think much about what any of players did at the plate, after Cody broke the game open.
But maybe last night, bought him more time, but I am pretty surprised he is in the line up tonight.
I can see Dozier with a night off, from all the travel, but I thought he would be a fixture in this line up.
I like when Cody is at first, and I think he does better at the plate when he plays first, and he saves a lot of throws for our guys in the infield too.
Although you know I think he is a good defensive centerfielder too, but I thought Taylor would be in center, I think that is are best defensive line up.
Because Taylor is not as good at second, as he is at short, it must be he is so use to the left side of the infield.
Getting Machado and Dozier changed everything in the infield. Taylor in center makes sense.
Roberts must feel Muncy has what it takes to rediscover his mojo. It would be easy enough to disappear him. I guess I actually like the move. Hope it works out for him. I won’t be surprised either way it goes. Muncy can’t possibly be .967 OPS hitter – right?
MJ
Good question on Muncie. Guess it is another outstanding lineup from Dummy. Why is he in tonight against JV?
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about Muncy, how many players on this team has been given so many chances.
I like Muncy, but after Roberts sit him and played Dozier, I thought it might change.
And he is not the only hitter on this team I am not sure about, and you can tell he is thankful for every chance he has been given, unlike others.
But I think he is really going to have to hit and keep hitting, because I think our best defensive line up has Cody at first, to make all our other infielders look better.
I think maybe Taylor might start hitting better, without the big responsibility of playing shortstop too.
Cody and Taylor are the best athletes on this team, and that shows up in their War numbers.
Puig is a good athlete too, but Cody and Taylor, are more controlled with their moves.
We need to get Kemp and Puig, hitting to the right side more, where their power really stands out.
I agree with that MJ. I thought Muncy would be a good trade piece at the deadline. He hit like Harper for a while, but I didn’t think that would last. Sell high. But, he’s still here so…. go Max.
Badger
I remember you saying that from the beginning, and you have been far more right then anyone, this year.
But your like me, you will always root for an underdog, and you don’t necessary need to be right, because you don’t have an ego issue, like some guys do.
I just call them as I see them MJ.
Kemp really slumping.
Wood grinding it out.
Dodgers only need 20 runs and 6 Homers to equal previous output.
Could happen
And I see the luckiest pop up HR and run, I have ever seen.
We are very lucky to have that one run.
But Verlander is a freak, because he often gains velocity as he pitches.
Didn’t see anything.
Saw in boxscore that the Astros scored on an error, so it all evens out.
The teams are pretty darn even, no?
Bluto
Maybe, but remember they don’t have Altuve or Correa in this line up.
If you didn’t notice that in the boxscore.
They have the velocity and the height of HRs and some of the hits, in that game day feed on Dodger com, if you are not aware of that.
And videos of some of the plays, and hits.
They don’t have Altuve or Correa. The Dodgers basically don’t have Muncy or Kemp, they are struggling so badly.
Yes, love those stats. And exit velocity. Pederson’s HR doesn’t look that bad. Great exit velocity, good angle and distance. I think? Maybe? Who cares! It’s a HR! Pederson!
Anyone see the ump show in the Boston/NYY game?