Dodgers 13, Royals 3: Bats explode early & power Dodgers to 12th straight win

At the end of the day, winning the World Series is the important thing, but don’t let that prevent you from taking a step back and appreciating this comical run the Dodgers are on right now.

After tonight’s 13-3 blowout over the Royals, the Dodgers have won 12 in a row and 15 of their last 16, and it’s within the realm of possibility that they could have the best season in baseball history. Not likely, but possible, which is ridiculous in itself.

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Poor Brad Keller, he was basically just fed to the wolves today.

The game started with Mookie Betts‘ 26th homer of the year, a Trea Turner infield single, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith walking to load the bases, then Max Muncy, Justin Turner, and Gavin Lux all singled to score a run each and make it 4-0 before a single out was recorded.

Almost amazingly, the Dodgers only got one run after that, on a wild pitch of all things. 5-0.

While I suppose that was temporarily disappointing, they came right back in the 2nd with a Mookie single and then Dills smashing his 17th homer of the year for a 7-0 lead.

Taking the mound for the Dodgers was Andrew Heaney and his sub-1 ERA, but after five outs in a row to start his outing, he gave up a double, hit a batter, and then gave up a triple to plate a pair of runs and balloon his ERA.

Though his real problem came in the 3rd when he was hit on the arm by a comebacker. He got through the inning but was then removed with a contusion, and given how injury prone he’s been there has to be some concern: 3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 60 Pitches.

As far the game went, there wasn’t much doubt.

In the 3rd, Lux smashed his fifth dinger of the year to put the lead back up to six at 8-2.

Keller ended up being done after three as well, though due to pitch count, and the Royals reliever Carlos Hernandez had the 4th. He gave up a single to Will and an emphatic homer from Muncy, his 14th. 10-2.

With Hernandez still in the game for the Royals in the 6th, he was victimized by Muncy again. This time a walk to Freddie led to a Muncy double down the line to push things to 11-2. Hilariously, after months of impatient fans wanting to DFA him, he’s an above-average hitter for the year now.

The Dodgers pen had a bunch of work to do with Heaney out early, but they got work in, basically. Caleb Ferguson got through the 4th giving up just a single, then Chris Martin got four outs but struggled a bit and gave up two singles and a double. Phil Bickford relieved him in the 6th and gave up a double to charge a run to Martin, but ended up getting four outs of his own. Reyes Moronta closed out the 7th and then got a scoreless 8th as well.

While the bats didn’t do much for a pair of innings, Nicky Lopez entered in the 9th and served up some batting practice. Joey Gallo and Cody Bellinger went back-to-back, hitting their 14th and 16th homers of the year, respectively. That made it 13-3.

The Dodgers replied in kind with Hanser Alberto in a scoreless 9th.

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Freddie can pick it.

Bobby Witt terrified a fan.

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79-33 on the year. Decent.

TeamChaseGames
MetsMLB6 Up
MetsNL6 Up
PadresNL West16.5 Up*

*Game in progress.

The Dodgers will go for the sweep tomorrow in an early game at 8:10 AM HT/11:10 AM PT/2:10 PM ET with Tyler Anderson facing Brady Singer.

About Chad Moriyama

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"A highly rational Internet troll." - Los Angeles Times