Dodgers 8, Brewers 2: All Of The Homers

So that picture at the top of Jimmy Rollins, it wasn’t taken tonight in Milwaukee. It’s actually from a few days ago in San Diego. Rollins didn’t hit the biggest homer of the night — that’d be Justin Turner, who turned a 1-0 Milwaukee lead into a 3-1 Dodgers advantage with one swing off of Matt Garza in the sixth. Rollins didn’t hit the biggest homer of the night, either — that’d be Adrian Gonzalez, who hit a seventh-inning blast off of Rob Wooten that was estimated at 447 feet, which I can only presume means “until the ball simply created its own black hole and disintegrated,” because, wow.  And he didn’t shut down the Brewers on two hits over 7.2 innings, either — that was Zack Greinke.

But Rollins still gets the focus here, because his first month as a Dodger has just been so, so brutal. Entering the night, he’d hit just .167/.257/.292, and while you knew it wasn’t going to stay that bad, you also knew that he turned 36 last November and Corey Seager is now only a level away. I know that by going 1-5 tonight, Rollins’ OBP actually dropped slightly (though his wRC+ went up, because, homer), and I know that he had a relatively minimal role in tonight’s win, all things considered. I just know how rare it’s been that we’ve been able to spotlight him for positive performance. I figure we ought to while we can.

Hang on, Greinke bat flip! (Thanks, Chad)


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Pedro Baez struck out Carlos Gomez to end the eighth, and Daniel Coulombe finished up by allowing one to come home in the ninth. As the Dodgers head into the non-Clayton Kershaw / Greinke portion of their rotation — Joe Wieland starts tomorrow, which is kind of fun, and Carlos Frias goes in Thursday’s matinee finale — what they’re left with is an exceptionally well-rested bullpen. Since only Chris Hatcher went on Monday, and even he threw just 14 pitches, Don Mattingly will have more than his share of relievers to choose from if and when the next two starters don’t go that deep. (Of course, someone’s going to get optioned to make room for Wieland, although that’s probably just going to be Coulombe, so, the point would stand.)

Anyway, I suppose I can’t just merely mention that Gonzalez dinger without showing it to you. I’m not entirely sure where all of this is coming from for him, but I’m pretty sure we’re all enjoying it.

About Mike Petriello

Mike writes about lots of baseball in lots of places, and right now that place is MLB.com.