Dodgers Beat the Streak: Rejuvenated offense behind Clayton Kershaw
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ offense did not look great in the Freeway Series and led to the team dropping two of three games. That will change in San Diego.
The Los Angeles Dodgers continued the team’s offensive struggles into game three of the freeway series and the pitching staff could not hold a 3-0 lead; the Dodgers lost the game 4-3 off a pinch-hit solo home run from Shohei Ohtani.
Despite scoring three runs on one hit in the first inning, the Dodgers offense looked pretty defeated against the Angels on Sunday. The Dodgers had only five hits.
Game three mirrored the first two games of the series, in which the Dodgers mustered four hits in each game. A combined seven runs in three games is not great, if it wasn’t for the great starting pitching, the Dodgers easily could have been swept.
Hopefully, this can change in San Diego as the Dodgers give the ball to Clayton Kershaw in the opening game of a four-game series against the Padres. Our Dodgers Beat the Steak hitting steaks depend on it.
On Sunday I went with Enrique Hernandez, who had a favorable matchup against the southpaw, Andrew Heaney. Hernandez went 0-4. Sarah was just unlucky as her selection, Cody Bellinger, also went 0-4.
Sarah’s pick — Current streak 0: Chris Taylor
My pick for today is the Dodgers’ leadoff guy, Chris Taylor. With Yasiel Puig out for the foreseeable future, the offense is going to really have to step up. That’s something they have had no problem doing in the past, and it’s fully possible they do it again.
Whether it’s Matt Kemp, Max Muncy, Chris Taylor, or anyone else on this team, the Dodgers’ offense is stacked, even without the Wild Horse. CT3 hasn’t been outstanding lately, but he is still one of the strongest leadoff hitters in baseball, and I think that, as the Dodgers venture down to San Diego, he’ll prove why he’s one of the best.
Jason’s pick — Current streak 0: Matt Kemp
Matt Kemp is an all-star and there is no better way than to celebrate with a great game down in the beautiful city of San Diego. Kemp was decent in the freeway series, delivering two RBIs in game one, but has looked more human since his incredible month of May.
However, against the Padres, chances are that we are going to see that superhuman Kemp re-emerge and power the Dodgers to a series win over the Padres. If LA can sweep San Diego it would provide much-needed momentum heading into the final series against the Angels before the All-Star Break.
Kemp has smashed his former team thus far this season. In nine games against the Padres Kemp is 17-34 with four home runs, 12 RBIs and a 1.368 OPS. Safe to say that Kemp sees the Padres’ pitching fairly well.
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When a player is hitting .500 over a decent sample size against a particular team it is hard to ignore. Thus, Matt Kemp is my selection for the first game in San Diego.