July 9-11 (3-game series). Dodgers come home to face the worst road team in MLB. They should feast on them like everyone else.
Game 1– Ugh! Dodgers do charity work by donating 1st game to Snakes. Roberts throws in the towel by trotting out of the bullpen his worst pitchers (newest rook Nunez, Vesia, Uceta, Reed) in a game we should easily win. I would have let Price pitch at least 4 if not 5 innings, but Doc lifted him after only 3. Makes no sense. Of course Dodgers really lost due to their lack of offense. Besides a hot AJ (batting 8th?), rest of team had only 3 hits and scored none.
Rant: I don’t know who is hitting worse now, Belli or Lux. They both should be batting at the tail end of the order. I would have PH Pujols for Lux when we had 2 on. (What were we saving Pujols for?) Dodgers defense suspect again: JT ole’d a hopper, Max let a DP liner get away from him, and they let Ahmad steal 2nd and 3rd with hardly a play.
Game 2- Complete reversal in spades as Dodgers play Home Run Derby with 8 jacks by 6 players including 2 slams for 22 runs on 21 hits, courtesy of a steady diet of meatballs by the broken D’Backs. Fun to see Pinetar Turner and Mookie order out at the deli counter for a pair of salamis — JT’s first ever, Mookie’s 5th, and 2nd time this season Dodgers have a pair of slams (MLB record), adding to the Dodgers’ total of 9 slams so far this season (1 shy of their club record). Also fun watching Tio Albert pound a lollipop served up by Josh Reddick 420 ft for his 2nd homer of the game (and 3rd hit). This is probably Dodgers largest victory margin ever and maybe in MLB too.
But, save some runs for tomorrow! We all know the Dodgers will go back to struggling to score tomorrow. But time to savor taking us out to the Snake Shack for now.
Game 3 (rubber game)- Mighty Mad Max Muncy! The Mookie and Max show. Dodgers claim first 9th inning walkoff of the season, 7-4, on one mighty Max swing. Dodgers climb out of their dead sleep coffin — apparently exhausted from the 22-run night before –to score 3 in the 8th and 3 more in the 9th. Both set up by good leadoff AB’s by Zach and Tio Albert. That’s more like it!
The bad: sloppy play by JT almost cost us. Base running out on Smith with what would have been bases loaded, due to JT not getting good enough jump to score on single by CT3, so Ebel had to hold him at 3B, but left Will out to dry at 2B. While again Belli is killing us in the 4 hole — bad K with bases loaded no outs in 8th.
Pitching: Another good but sloppy start from Cat Gonsolin, and strong finishes by our top guys Treinen and Jansen. Not so good in between, as Roberts waited too long to bring in the duo. Scott Alexander got roughed up for 2 runs in the 7th by hanging out in the middle of the zone (stupid pitches).