Dodgers BTS: Hope for a prosperous and powerful series in Pittsburgh
Tonight the Dodgers begin a three-game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates and hope the ghosts of their last series at PNC are kept at bay.
The night was Wednesday, August 23rd. The year was 2017, a season in which the Dodgers made history. Rich Hill, the wisest and most seasoned starter in the Dodgers rotation, was about to make history himself, or so we all hoped. On that night, he took a perfect game into the 9th and a no-hitter into the 10th. He was pitching like Sandy Koufax, but the Dodgers were not hitting like Tommy Davis and Frank Howard. They failed to give Hill any run support and ran the risk of having it all ended on a walk-off homer.
That, dear Dodger fans, is exactly what happened.
With no outs in the bottom of the 10th inning at a roaring PNC Park, Josh Harrison hit it out and ended the game. Most Dodger fans will say that’s where it began; the losing streak that made the news but made no difference in the end.
The Dodgers came back and won the next game 5-2 with the help of Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brandon Morrow, and hit 90 wins on the season.
The near no-no was still there, however, and few were over it. Games like that take time.
Well, the Dodgers got time, and now they are ready to go back to PNC and continue this surprising yet extremely unsurprising streak they are on. The Pirates are currently one game over .500 and fourth in the NL Central. The Dodgers are only one game shy of .500 and enter this series hoping to move up in the west.
Sunday was an epic game for the boys in blue. Jason and I both picked Matt Kemp and, you guessed it, he got a hit. Kemp has played so well recently he even earned NL Player of the Week honors, as announced on Monday per MLB.com.
So with both of our streaks at 2, we look towards Tuesday, and hope that Ross “new ace of the current rotation?” Stripling can keep up the Dodgers’ success.
Sarah’s pick — Current streak 2: Max Muncy
My pick for tonight is Max Muncy. It’s not tough to see why, as Muncy has been the wild yet welcome surprise few of us saw coming. First, some history. Muncy was born in Midland, Texas. Of all the great players to be born in the state of Texas, only Muncy and three others hail from Midland. One of those players is Mike Timlin, who helped pitch the Red Sox to victory in 2004. Muncy, however, is not a pitcher, but rather a slugger of baseballs and a defender on the basepath.
On Sunday, Muncy hit two home runs against the Rockies, bringing his season total to nine. It’s easy to contribute those hits to the thin air of Denver, but speaking as someone who has been to Coors Field, plenty of baseballs stay in the park. A moonshot is a moonshot no matter where you hit it.
Muncy is so important for this team going forward. He’s the kind of player that takes advantage of every at-bat. He takes his walks. and has gotten a hit in nearly a quarter of his plate appearances. One-third of those hits have been homers.
Max Muncy is one of the Dodgers’ secret weapons. Matt Kemp and Ross Stripling are two others. If the Dodgers want to win the west again, they can’t simply rely on their superstars, they have to rely on those who have proven themselves to the team, to the city, and to the fans. Max Muncy has, and something tells me he won’t be the last.
Jason’s pick — Current streak 2: Yasiel Puig
Five years ago, on June 3, 2016, Yasiel Puig started what was one of the best debut weeks in baseball history. Puig’s hot bat led the directionless Los Angeles Dodgers to a red-hot summer that resulted in the first of five consecutive NL West titles.
With the Dodgers beginning to heat up once more, Yasiel Puig should start racking up more hits as well.
While Puig is not in the eight spot in tonight’s lineup (which he hits best in) the six-hole hitter is going to come through with a big extra-base hit tonight off Joe Musgrove that will turn the tide of the game.
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Not only that, but Puig will extend my streak to a modest three games.