After an ugly stretch involving the club’s worst losing streak in recent years, the Los Angeles Dodgers have won five of their last six games thanks to some timely hitting and solid pitching against the Mets and Rockies.
Although the club’s current offensive output hasn’t been anywhere near the numbers it produced over the first several weeks of the season, the team seems to be doing just enough to put themselves in the winning column, albeit against some of the worst teams in the league.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman made the most noise on offense in the club’s 4-0 victory in Sunday’s finale against division-rival Colorado. Betts hit a home run down the left-field line to open the scoring in the bottom of the first inning, notching the 52nd leadoff homer of his career. Freeman’s blast to center field three at-bats later stretched the lead to two runs.
Freeman finished the day with a homer and three walks. He has now reached base in six of his last seven plate appearances, stepping up his game among what can still be considered one of the club’s poorest offensive stretches of the season, aside from the 10-run output against the Mets in last Wednesday’s series finale.
Max Muncy, who is tied for third on the team with nine long balls, doesn’t appear to be anywhere near returning. According to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Muncy was feeling great and even took batting practice for two consecutive days before the team left for Cincinnati last weekend. However, when he began ramping up for his return, Muncy said he felt his oblique flare up again, keeping him shutdown from baseball activities ever since.
“I don’t think anybody has a timetable because we can’t really put one on it,” Muncy told Plunkett. “It’s probably the worst injury you can have as a position player because you can’t do anything. You can’t strengthen it. You can’t strengthen the area around it. You can’t do anything with the rest of your body because you have to involve your core to do that. You have to just sit and let it heal and that’s where we’re at.”
Despite the sluggish offense, the team has been staying in ball games thanks to some steady solid pitching. Gavin Stone picked up his sixth win of the season after throwing five scoreless innings, scattering four hits and two walks while striking out six.
Stone has emerged among the team’s early-season leaders in the starting pitching department. There was no clear reason for pulling the youngster after just 75 pitches on Sunday, aside from the fact that he was pitching on only four days of rest, which might have been normal in any other baseball universe.
Regardless, the Dodgers head eastbound to Pittsburgh to start a three-game set against the Pirates beginning on Tuesday. Tentatively lining up to start for the Dodgers are Tyler Glasnow, James Paxton and Walker Buehler, respectively.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Stone is becoming an ace for this team. Fun to watch him continue to learn his craft. Pages is showing a bit of a spark. Vargas has hit with few at bats. Hoping they keep a 6 man rotation when Miller returns. Lucy continues to struggle.
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I doubt Lux returns to the player he was prior to his injury this year. It took Acuna over a year to get back to where he was prior to his injury. Lux is a contact hitter. All he needs to do is make solid contact and not try to do too much. I do not think he fully trusts his body yet. But, in his defense, he has not let it bother his fielding, which so far has been great. If he can get back to around .250, he will be an asset. Muncy was seen taking grounders yesterday, but he is not swinging a bat yet. One Wednesday, the Dodgers will face Pirate phenom Paul Skenes for the first time.
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I think you are right Bear. There is a very small window to be able to make contact vs pop ups and strike outs. Lux is probably not able to physically stay in that window. I question if they should just sit him down and allow him to heal. They continued to throw Bellinger out there and that didn’t work well. But Lux also is not being strategic with his at bats as several commentators have mentioned.
Who would have thought that in the last few starts Stone would be putting up the best numbers on the team?Looking forward to watching the Pirate game today. I wish they would give Vargas more at bats. Desperately need guys that can make contact bottom half of order. Mookie , Ohtani etc continually coming up to bat without runners on.
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Not playing him would not help at all. He is healed, he just doesn’t totally trust himself yet. He does on the bases though. He runs as hard as he ever has. But you take a year plus off and your hitting mechanics and timing are going to be for shit. If you watch Ohtani, you will probably notice that he pulls off of the ball a lot. But the dude is so strong, he still makes hard contact. Kike steps in the bucket repeatedly on inside pitches. Bellinger gets a bad rap. In the shortened season, he hit .239. The next season, AFTER his surgery, he hit only.165. But he also only played in 95 games. Mostly because he broke his leg after fouling a ball off of it. His timing was screwed up, he got into some really bad habits that followed him into the 21 season. His problem in 21 was swinging at pitches on the outer half he had no shot at hitting, and high fastballs were his Kryptonite too. But he still raised his BA 45 points from the prior season. I still believe he was not totally healthy, and his shoulder was not at full strength. So, what happens last year, he is fully healthy, he hits .307 with 26 homers in 130 games, drives in 97 runs and cuts his K rate drastically. Not only that, he stole 20 bases last year, more than any other season in his career. This season he got off to a slow start but he has heated up. He has 8 homers, 27 driven in and is hitting .265 with an OPS just below .800. He also has only struck out 30 times in over 170 at bats. My feeling is they gave up on him a year too soon. But to them, he was not worth the QO.
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Another loss due to Roberts allowing players to not sacrifice and play team ball. Very frustrating to watch. Lux continues to not be strategic and not play team ball refusing to sacrifice repeatedly. Why r they playing Taylor? Although he has now definitely established the TAYLOR LINE… bat around.100 for a new mark of futility! lol
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At least it wasn’t against another team with a losing record. Oh wait….
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