Although it took just shy of eight years to accomplish, the Dodgers walked away with a three-game sweep of the Rockies on Sunday afternoon—and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
With the victory in the series finale, the Dodgers have now won 13 of their last 17 games and currently find themselves just 2-1/2 games behind the division lead.
To say that the Los Angeles offense was prolific over the weekend would be an understatement. The Dodgers scored a total of 33 runs in the entire series. And there seemed to be a different hero in each game.
In the 11-8 win on Friday night, Yasiel Puig went 4-for-5 at the plate, hammering a double, a home run and two RBI to trigger the offense. Rookie pitcher Dennis Santana, who was eventually credited with the victory, delivered a clutch double to the warning track in the fourth inning to help his own cause on the mound. Chris Taylor remained hot at the plate, belting two key hits and four RBI. And Matt Kemp, who seemingly has been carrying the offense on his shoulders all season, launched his eighth home run of the year in the first inning.
On Saturday, an eight-run seventh inning propelled the Dodgers to a 12-4 victory. Kemp hit a screaming line drive over the left field wall to highlight the frame, but Joc Pederson was the big hero of the day, going 4-for-5 with two long balls, a double, two RBI and four runs scored. Taylor chipped in with another two hits and utility man Breyvic Valera also contributed two hits and three RBI of his own.
In the finale on Sunday, first baseman Max Muncy kept the Dodgers in the game early with a pair of homers, but catcher Yasmani Grandal delivered the big blow in the top of the ninth with a two-run blast to right-center field off All-Star reliever Wade Davis. Most importantly, it was probably Justin Turner who grinded out the most productive AB of the day when he scored Logan Forsythe on a fielder’s choice grounder to first base, giving the Dodgers an 8-7 lead.
“We battled. Everybody battled,” Grandal said after Sunday’s game. “As soon as you start to put pressure on guys they have to perform. Davis left a couple pitches in the zone and we were able to capitalize and break through.”
As stellar as the offense was, the starting pitching took a beating, which was to be expected in Denver. The Dodgers used six different pitchers in a bullpen game on Friday. Santana got clubbed for five earned runs on six hits and a walk in his debut, but he will live to see another day—likely to start in the upcoming series in Pittsburgh. Saturday saw Walker Buehler get tagged for four runs in the second inning alone; however, the young righty still held on to eat five very important innings. And, on Sunday, starter Alex Wood got cuffed for six runs on five hits, three walks and a hit batsmen before being pulled after just two innings in favor of Erik Goeddel. Still, behind seven different pitchers in the finale, the Dodgers erased a five-run deficit as they rallied again to complete the sweep.
Looking ahead, the Dodgers will have an off day on Monday as they travel to Pittsburgh ahead of a three-game set against the Pirates. Stay tuned tomorrow as Andy will provide a thorough preview of the series.
What a great series. Anyone could be positive here so I’m going to get picky. Why are we continuing to start Forsythe for most of the games at second base? Granted he had 2 hits today but even after going 2 for 4 he’s hitting under .220. Since we have Valera, let’s start him for about 10 days and see what we have. His minor league hitting stats are quite good and for those who feel Forsythe’s defense is worth starting him, he made a key error today. Toles will come off the DL at OKC on Tuesday so hopefully we’re getting closer to having him back here. If Bellinger can’t correct his problems by then, it may be time to send him out for awhile. It certainly seems to have been a benefit to Puig and Joc.
It pains me to say this, but you’re probably right about Belanger,Jeff. He hasn’t really been able to make the adjustments since the Astros exposed him in the World Series. Looks like we’re going to be starting the okc starting pitchers this next week, Buehler, Stewart, Stripling, and Santana, should be some interesting baseball to watch, Dennis has been pretty high on these guys, hope they make him like a genius. As for Forsythe, I really root for him to do well, I want to put up a good argument for him, but I’ve got nothing to back it up with.
I agree with you Keith. I would like nothing better than to see Forsythe do well, but it’s now getting to be almost 1.5 seasons and the results aren’t there. He has a great attitude, he’s a team-first player, not a distraction in the clubhouse, etc. etc. etc. Time to see if someone else could be of more help.
I’m gonna cut the Dodger starters some slack for once because we all know it doesn’t matter if you have an All-Star rotation at your disposal, Coors’ Field chews ’em up and spits ’em out EVERYTIME! In the end you either got a deep and extremely well-managed bullpen to get you through that unforgiving environment like the Dodgers fortunately have this season, or you won’t survive it at all. Besides, I felt Santana and Buehler did better than expected during their first time pitching in that ballpark, but Wood really disappointed me today. Zero command I saw from him, not to mention how poorly he fielded his position in that 1st inning which led to 4 Colorado runs scoring right off the bat. I felt the real play of the game was Roberts going right to the pen to start the bottom of the 3rd inning because I knew he had enough rested arms down there to hold the Rockies down while the offense finally got back to work again. Boy, did it pay dividends down the stretch! Job well-done, Dave.
And as for Bellinger, yeah it’s time for him to get that long-overdue refresher course down at AAA right now. Even Mike Trout had to go through it his first full big-league season with the Halos several years back and has been fine ever since. Wouldn’t be surprised if it works out for Cody along similar lines. Besides, it would give the Dodgers a nice excuse to either bring Verdugo back up or finally give top 1B prospect Edwin Rios an extended look in the meantime. That’s the beauty of having so much depth stockpiled on this ballclub, creates a wealth of options that might’ve never been available otherwise…
And before I finish up here, I agree with you all regarding Forsythe. I think he was one of the few trade acquisitions by this current front office that they probably didn’t really think all the way through the first time and now fully regret it (lol). Good thing Valera’s still on the roster, he might be seeing more playing time at Logan’s expense real soon. At least he doesn’t lay back and let hittable pitches go by him most of the time!
Great comments all the way around…I’m just hoping the boys get above .500 in the Pirates series. Considering all the stuff that has happened so far, I’m heartened to know that there are still 103 games left to play. I’m just hoping that some semblance of a healthy pitching staff can come together.
As a long time and fanatical Dodger fan, it seems the current team situation is remarkably bright considering the starting pitchers have been decimated by injuries. Sending Bellinger down for a reminder that no one is immune from a refresher course would also be beneficial. Mr. Forsyth’s was not a good acquisition in the first place and I always suspected was a favorite of the current management. There are 100+ games left to right the ship and if Mr. Roberts believes we can still win this division I’m all in. Excuse me I need to go get my free Dodger dog sitting in the right field pavilion with the real deal fans of this team go Coca-Cola pavilion and go Dodgers! P.S. Any chance of acquiring a front line pitcher before the trade deadline? I still cannot believe Verlandet and now Garret Cole rolled by while management went for Alexander? Just sayin.
Yeah, front office chalked it up to “staying under the luxury tax” for this year:::snicker:::now Verlander to the Astros I’m cool with because that was the only situation that made the most sense for him and both teams involved when that monumental deal was made last year. Cole, on the other hand, well I felt they should’ve tried harder to win him over this past offseason. Then again, he wasn’t known as having the best work ethic dating back to his UCLA days as former Bruin teammate Trevor Bauer quickly pointed out recently. Besides, Dodgers just need to get most of their current starters back healthy again…save for Kershaw, who probably should be considering medical retirement right now. Only real trade acquisition they should be focusing on as the deadline draws near is another 8th inning “Morrow” for their pen. Get that guy, Dodgers are back to having that crucial 3-headed monster setup in relief down the stretch. If they also wind up landing a proven innings-eater without bleeding the farm silly in the process, consider that an added bonus. At this point, they might just stay in-house to plug up their rotation in the meantime while their key guys continue to work their way back from the DL.
I know I’m the first one to have thrown Forsythe under the bus on this post but I’m also going to stand up and admit I had no problem when the trade was made. To me, it seemed like a worthwhile move to fill a hole we had. People were also mentioning Dozier’s name at the same time and in retrospect that would have probably been the better move, although we have no idea what he would have cost us. Dennis, you need to come up with some sort of spreadsheet so every time we make a trade we can all vote yes or no. Anyone who votes yes can’t ever criticize the deal down the road when it turns out to be a huge mistake. Of course, that would mean that I could only comment here about 1/3 as often as I do now (maybe not a bad thing). 🙂
Not sure you can put Verlander, Cole and Alexander in the same basket Neil. Slight difference in salary. I, for one, am willing to let Friedman’s self-imposed payroll limitation for this year play out until I see how he uses that money next year.