What a week it has been. The Los Angeles Dodgers played six games, and just three of them lasted nine innings thanks in part to a social justice movement that caused the Dodgers (and San Francisco Giants) to postpone Wednesday’s game.
Then again, weird or not the Dodgers kept winning: taking four of six, and come out of the off day 4.5 games ahead of the San Diego Padres in the National League West standings.
And with that, let’s get to this week’s edition of Three Up, Three Down.
Three Up
1) We all knew Cody Bellinger was going to turn it around eventually, and it appears the beginning stages have been reached.
Bellinger entered the week with a batting average of .211 and raised that number to .225 by going 7-for-24; he also walked three times. Maybe the best part, however, was that his swing is starting to look normal.
Of his seven hits, four were for extra bases including home runs on both Saturday and Sunday, bringing his season total to 10, which is tied for 10th-most in baseball.
The Dodgers, by the way, set the NL record for home runs in a month on Sunday with 57. To be fair, this is the first season with a universal, so it probably needs to be celebrated with a grain of salt.
2) Mentioned on this week’s DodgerHeads, but another great story this season has been the emergence of Victor Gonzalez in the bullpen. This was a guy who was signed at the age of 16 out of Mexico around the same time as Julio Urias.
While Urias was gaining all the attention, Gonzalez was grinding his way through the Minor Leagues as a teenager before making his MLB debut this season.
So far, he has been outstanding: 9 IP, 2 ER, 8 K, 1 BB and just 6 hits allowed in a long relief role that has asked him to eat up outs for the bullpen.
3) Let’s give some love to Clayton Kershaw. Another start, another gem in Game 1 of the doubleheader against the Giants.
Six innings, four hits, zero walks and four strikeouts for the ace —- improving his record to 4-1 on the season. While everyone around him has been a rollercoaster ride in the rotation, Kershaw has been steady and given the team exactly what they’ve needed.
Three Down
1) There’s officially competition within the division, folks. Already owning the second-best record in the NL, Padres went out and acquired everyone they could: adding a bonafide ace, two new catchers and some power arms to their bullpen as they prepare for a deep run into the postseason.
This doesn’t have much to do with the Dodgers -— who still have a better roster —- but it’s definitely going to make this year and the next few fascinating to watch.
2) One week the rotation is a strength, the next it’s a question mark. This week? There are questions. Walker Buehler is on the 10-day injured list with blisters (although he’s expected to return this week), Ross Stripling continued to struggle (9.2 IP, 7 ER this week) and wound up getting traded to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Urias (4 IP, 4 ER, 9 baserunners allowed), and even Dustin May hasn’t quite turned the corner yet. For as electric as May’s stuff is, he is only striking out 5.91 batters per nine innings. It’s the second-worst mark on the Dodgers — with Brusdar Graterol being the worst.
That’s a sign of young pitchers with nasty stuff who haven’t quite figured out the intricacies of pitching and how to get batters out. Whether or not they figure it out in 2020 could be a big factor in how successful this season ends up being.
3) The last bit of bad news for the Dodgers this week was a hamstring tweak for Justin Turner on a stolen base attempt. Why he was stealing is beyond me, but he was (he did swipe the bag) and he came up gimpy.
The Dodgers say they’re going to re-evaluate him on Tuesday — so hopefully by then everything has healed up, but Turner has been the team’s most consistent hitter in crunch time so they cannot afford to have him missing any serious time.
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