The Dodgers had a truly historic weekend series against the Colorado Rockies. Not only did they have three walk-off wins in a row, they were all off of the home run, and they were all hit by a different rookie.
Matt Beaty, then Alex Verdugo, and then a freshly recalled Will Smith each provided the heroics in the bottom of the ninth inning to provide the Dodgers with a sweep of their divisional foes. They are the first team in the major leagues to have two games, and then three games in a row to have rookies hit a walk-off homer.
Walker Buehler took matters into his own hands on Friday night, going for the complete game win, racking up an incredible 16 strikeouts along the way. That was the most by a pitcher on the Dodgers’ staff under the age of 25 since Ramon Martinez. Cody Bellinger also reached 25 home runs on the season, an amount he had for the total of the 2018 season.
Now another rookie seems poised to help the Dodgers. Tony Gonsolin is expected to be called up to help the pitching staff. As he is not quite built up yet, it will be expected that he will help out of the bullpen to start. He has a 2.57 ERA in Triple-A Oklahoma City, and had spent a little bit of time on the IL. Since then he has slowly been building his innings up, with 77 pitches being the most amount he’s thrown since late May. The righty was the Dodgers’ Pitcher of the Year in the minors last season.
After going 9-2 on this last home stand, the Dodgers now head out on the road, and will only be facing divisional opponents until the All-Star game, in the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres. The Dodgers so far this season are 34-9 at home, while their road record is a more pedestrian 20-16. To counter that, they are 23-8 against the rest of the NL West this season.
Monday night’s pitching matchup should be a good one. Clayton Kershaw will go up against old friend Zack Greinke. The righty is 8-3 so far, with a 2.91 ERA. He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning two starts ago, and afterwards was upset by losing it because dealing with the press after would be too much of a bother to deal with. Never change, Zack.
Tuesday’s matchup will be Robbie Ray for the DBacks, and a yet-to-be determined starter for the Dodgers, as it would be Rich Hill spot in the rotation. The general consensus though is that Ross Stripling will be taking that slot, although it has yet to be formally announced. The Dodgers last faced Ray on June 3rd, when they got three earned runs off him, thanks to a three-run homer off the bat of Corey Seager in the fourth inning.
Wednesday’s matinee will see Taylor Clarke and another yet-to-be-named starter for the Dodgers. Clarke last faced the Dodgers June 4th, where he allowed only two earned runs, in a game where the Dodgers ended up scoring nine and blanking the DBacks. The Dodgers will then fly to Denver to face off against the Rockies again for a four game set at Coors Field.