LOS ANGELES — I guess this team loves to win by the score of 7-4. The Dodgers were back at home Monday night, and they used back-to-back home runs to turn the game around in the sixth inning thanks to Jason Heyward and James Outman. Bobby Miller didn’t even have his best outing, although he completed six innings once again to keep the Dodgers close.
The offense clearly has been on a tear recently, but what is more impressive is the fact that the 3-7 hitters in the lineup went 9-for-17 with 3 home runs, 6 RBI, and 6 runs scored. Mookie Betts has been scorching hot as of late, but the offense did not even need his services at the plate in this series opener. Freddie Freeman even launched a solo home run of his own but the story was “the other guys” in the series opener. To see the latter part of the lineup produce like this just shows that this 2023 team is built much differently than last years.
Bobby Miller took the mound for the Dodgers against a hot Diamondbacks team that had been on a roll offensively as of late. After a good start by the Dodger offense to make it 3-1, Arizona retaliated in a big way. Gabriel Moreno hit a two-run home run in the 4th inning to give the Diamondbacks their first lead of the game and it looked like Bobby Miller would have a short night. However, he settled down and ended up striking out four hitters and going six innings for the fourth straight time to give the bullpen a little bit of relief (no pun intended). Alex Vesia, Ryan Brasier, and Caleb Ferguson all shut down the Arizona lineup to close this one out.
The Dodgers are now 81-49 and are 13 games up in the National League West.
Here are my three takeaways:
Dodgers Get To Zac Gallen
Coming in, Arizona’s Zac Gallen had only allowed four runs in his last four starts. The Dodgers flipped the script and tagged him for six earned runs over 5 ⅓ innings. Not to mention, Gallen had not allowed four home runs in a game until Monday night, thanks to the power of Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Jason Heyward and James Outman. For a player in Gallen that is considered to be one of the top arms in the game of baseball and a usual Cy Young candidate, it shows that this Dodger offense can still be lethal against elite pitching.
Mookie Betts Wins Player of the Week
If you haven’t been paying attention to just how hot Mookie Betts has been at the plate, let me throw some stats out to justify it. Mookie hit .615 with a .655 OBP and a 1.540 OPS over the past week with 7 RBI and 9 runs scored in 29 plate appearances. Betts has now hit .464 with a .514 OBP and 10 home runs in August and leads the league in fWAR, hits and runs in that span. These are Barry Bonds like numbers for a superstar that has taken his game to another level. Although his hit streak ended on Monday night, Mookie has paired his scorching hot offense with stellar defense to now lead the National League MVP race by odds. This guy is locked in…
Tony Gonsolin Needs Tommy John Surgery
It has been a rough 2023 campaign for Gonsolin and now he faces one of the toughest battles a pitcher can face in Tommy John Surgery. After a down year performance wise, it was clear that something was holding Gonsolin back as his velocity was down and he was not getting deep into games like we saw last year in his All-Star season.
The decision was made to put Gonsolin on the injured list and get the surgery September 1st performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache. It ends his season and also puts his 2024 season in jeopardy as this surgery usually takes 12-15 months for recovery. The Dodgers do have plenty of reinforcements to make up for the loss, but we all wish Tony Gonsolin the best in his recovery and look forward to seeing him back on the mound at full strength.
Clayton Kershaw toes the rubber for the Dodgers against Merrill Kelly for the Diamondbacks Tuesday night. First pitch is set for 7:10 PM PST.
