Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
I called this a “trap game” in the game thread earlier, and it almost was. But the offense produced enough in a 18-9 win against the Reds on Monday afternoon, and it ended up as a season-high 18 runs and 21 hits for the Dodgers.
Scott Kazmir did his damnedest to make this a game, as he got touched up for four runs in 2 2/3 innings. It took him 78 pitches to get those eight outs. He also issued three walks and struck out just one.
Thankfully, the offense got things started in the first inning in the form of an Adrian Gonzalez 3-run dinger.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/767763320367566848
Since I wrote about his power outage on June 22, Gonzalez has a .177 ISO and 142 wRC+ (not including today), and this graph shows his ISO has been on the incline.
Encouraging ISO numbers for Adrian Gonzalez. Has a .177 ISO since I wrote about his power decline on June 22. pic.twitter.com/GJMJa9sn5h
— Dustin Nosler (@DustinNosler) August 22, 2016
The Dodgers jumped out to a 6-1 lead through 2 1/2 innings before Kazmir imploded. Jesse Chavez got the final out of the third inning before allowing a run in the fourth inning to make it 6-5 Dodgers. Then, the offense went homer crazy in the fifth inning.
Andrew Toles and Rob Segedin — starting for the slumping Josh Reddick and resting Justin Turner, respectively, hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning for their first career home runs.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/767792693942497281
Andrew Toles and Rob Segedin are the first players in #Dodgers history to hit their first @MLB homers back-to-back. (via Elias)
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 22, 2016
Then, feeling left out with only two hits up to this point of the game, Corey Seager launched his 22nd homer of the season.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/767793974497062912
He good. He also had about the quietest 4-hit game imaginable. He has a 13-game hitting streak and his batting average is up to .321 on the season. Drool.
As if Gonzalez going yard in the first inning wasn’t enough, he decided to have another.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/767795136516411392
first time Dodgers have hit 4 homers in one inning since 9/18/06
— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) August 22, 2016
That would be the 4+1 game, as Jay Jaffe noted on Twitter.
Pedro Baez, who is bad, allowed two runs in 2/3 of an inning with a 7-run lead. J.P. Howell got the final out of the sixth inning.
After seeing that, the offense decided to jump all over the Reds’ bullpen — again.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/767808488995037184
It was his third of the day, the second 3-homer game of his career (April 8, 2015) and his 15th home run of the season. If Gonzalez continues to hit for power going forward, that’s going to be a great boost to an already good offense for the rest of the season and in the postseason.
Oh, and he likes hitting in Great American Ballpark.
This is great. #ILoveThisBallParkhttps://t.co/mBoQI5LsS8
— Chavez Ravine Fiends (@RavineFiends) August 22, 2016
Yasmani Grandal got into the fun in the 6-run seventh inning with a monster solo shot of his own. That made it 16-7 at that point.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/767809464950886400
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/767809281726885888
With the win, the Dodgers improve to 69-55 (nice) and lead the NL West by a full game over the Giants. The Dodgers welcome ‘Frisco to Chavez Ravine for a 3-game set beginning Tuesday night. Kenta Maeda (3.29 ERA, 3.67 FIP) takes on Madison Bumgarner (2.25 ERA, 3.21 FIP). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. pacific time. Let’s get crazy.
