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Dodgers Beat the Streak: There will be a first hit of the 2018 season

By Jason Reed

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 15: Second baseman Breyvic Valera #33 of the Los Angeles Dodgers making his Major League Baseball debut catches a pop up by Nick Ahmed #13 of the Arizona Diamondbacks during the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium on April 15, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 15: Second baseman Breyvic Valera #33 of the Los Angeles Dodgers making his Major League Baseball debut catches a pop up by Nick Ahmed #13 of the Arizona Diamondbacks during the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium on April 15, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /
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Justin Turner is sitting out of the third game of the Dodgers-Phillies series and his replacement will get his first hit of the 2018 MLB season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were unable to make lightning strike twice and have two consecutive 4-0 comebacks. On Tuesday night, the Dodgers fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1.

The biggest news of the game was Kenta Maeda, who strained his right hip and will serve a DL stint. Replacing Maeda in the rotation is the Dodgers’ ninth-best prospect — according to MLB Pipeline — Dennis Santana.

However, despite only scoring one run, the Dodgers’ offense was not too bad on Tuesday night. The team collected nine hits as a unit. Max Muncy, Justin Turner and Matt Kemp each had two hits apiece.

Unfortunately for us, none of our selections were Muncy, Turner or Kemp. Instead, I went with Yasmani Grandal, hoping that he would relive his 2016 NLDS blast off of Jake Arrieta. That did not happen, however, Grandal did not register an at-bat so my streak remains still.

Sarah may not have selected someone who got multiple hits but she did come away with a streak-extending selection. Her pick, Chris Taylor, went 1-4 on the night with a single in the fourth inning.

Sarah’s pick — Current streak 4: Matt Kemp

My pick for today is Matt Kemp. This is as close to a sure thing as there is with this team nowadays. He’s been far and away the best hitter on the team and has been great so far this series, despite facing some pretty solid Philadelphia pitching.

The Dodgers need to get a win tonight because, with Kershaw on the mound tomorrow, they’ll have a chance to win the series. Should they do that they’ll lessen the severity of this “losing streak” by having swept the Nats and (hopefully) winning a series against the red-hot Phillies.

Matt Kemp is a serious contender for the All-Star Team, in my opinion. He’s had a revival of a season so far in LA and, should he keep it going, the Dodgers offense is going to gain some consistency.

I predict that Matt Kemp will either hit a homer or a line drive double tonight and hopefully help the Dodgers to a much needed W.

Jason’s pick — Current streak 2: Breyvic Valera

Talk about an outside of the box selection.

Breyvic Valera has not gotten a hit yet this season and only has one hit in his entire MLB career. Granted, he only has six plate appearances this year and 17 for his career, so the sample size is about as minimal as you can get.

Tonight, Valera is filling in at third base for Justin Turner, who likely is getting a routine day off. In his first start back on the big league roster, Valera is going to deliver with his first hit as a Dodger and his first hit of the season. In fact, I am going out on a limb and calling that Valera will have a multihit game.

Next: Everything to know about Matt Kemp's hot start

Valera has been hitting the ball extremely well at AAA OKC this year. He is hitting .317 in 140 plate appearances. Valera rarely strikes out (9.3 percent of plate appearances in AAA) and actually has the same amount of extra-base hits (13) as strikeouts.

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