The Dodgers are Heating Up!
The Dodgers erupted tonight for 13 runs and 11 hits including 9 walks against the National League worst San Francisco Giants thanks in large part to Yasiel Puig’s 4 RBI’s off 3 hits. At first, the game appeared to get away from the Boys in Blue after the Giants scored four runs in the top of the second inning off starter Alex Wood. Fortunately for the Dodgers, Franklin Gutierrez returned from the DL and started the scoring for LA in the bottom of the second with a lead-off homerun to centerfield.
Without recording an out, three more Dodgers reached safely to load the bases for Cody “The Kid” Bellinger. After hitting a towering foul ball that reached the upper deck, he cleared the bases with his first career triple – opening the floodgates.
The Giants pulled within a run in the top of the third inning to make it 6-5 and it wouldn’t have been surprising if many fans started to wonder if Dave Roberts was going to put in Kenley Jansen for a 6-inning save (insert eye roll). Luckily, the Dodgers piled on 7 more runs to defeat the lowly Giants 13-5. Beating the Giants is always fun. Beating the Giants by 8 runs tastes that much sweeter.
Though the Dodgers were finally able to hit left-handed pitching, hit with RISP and have a solid outing from the bullpen, there are still noticeable pitching issues that they will have to address moving forward in the season. For starters (pun intended) Alex Wood returned back to his normal self giving up 5 runs in as many innings (including 4 in the second), which makes one wonder why did Dave Roberts decide to let him throw over 90 pitches tonight as opposed to last week when he was having potentially the best outing of his career? The bullpen – though they didn’t allow any runs – still gave up a number of hits as well. In fact, the Giants actually out-hit the Dodgers tonight. Go figure.
In the end, Dodger hitting looked spectacular. Every starter on the team reached base safely at least once. Every. Single. One. Yes, even Alex Wood had a base-hit RBI single. If the Dodgers can figure out their pitching situation they should be able to solidify themselves in the NL West. Though the D-backs and Rockies are looking competitive this year, they have yet to face the Dodgers at full strength. And when they do…watch out.
BakoBoyInBlue
