Dodgers Beat the Streak: Facing back-to-back southpaws
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Dodgers were unable to hit southpaw Eric Lauer with much success on Tuesday. Tonight, the Dodgers face another southpaw, Joey Lucchesi.
After scoring eight runs in the opening contest in San Diego on Monday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers were held to just one run on four hits last night.
Southpaw Eric Lauer nearly threw a complete game shutout against the Dodgers if it weren’t for a two-out Max Muncy home run in the top of the ninth inning. Overall, Lauer threw eight and 2/3 innings of one-run baseball with eight strikeouts.
The last thing the Dodgers may want to see on Wednesday is another southpaw, which is exactly what the team is seeing in lefty Joey Lucchesi. Lucchesi enters the contest with a 3.27 ERA this season.
Since the Dodgers really could not hit last night, our Dodgers Beat the Streak hitting streaks both paid the price. I went with Matt Kemp, who posted his second consecutive no-hit contest against a Padres team he usually hits pretty well. Not only was it a 0-4 night for Kemp, he struck out all four times.
Sarah went with a red-hot call-up in Andrew Toles, who did not get the start against the left-handed pitcher. However, Toles did come in as a pinch hitter, failing to get a base hit in his lone attempt.
Sarah’s pick — Current streak 0: Enrique Hernandez
Well, I have a streak that is looking to get hot again, and the Dodgers have an offense hoping to do the same thing. Last night my pick, Andrew Toles, pinch-hit but didn’t get a hit. I didn’t totally expect Toles to hit but rather hoped. That’s what my picks are a lot of the time, hope for a specific player, and sometimes that hope, that faith, works out.
Tonight it didn’t and that is totally okay. If players were hitting every time they stepped up to the plate, this game would lose a massive part of its intrigue. That intrigue, in my opinion, is that no matter how good a hitter is, they’re never going to hit consistently above, say, .350.
Averages change, and so do players, so tonight I am going with a player who has improved his swing exponentially during his time with the Dodgers; Kiké Hernandez.
Not only is Hernandez a shining light in a Dodgers dugout that rarely ever seems dull, he is becoming a huge advantage for the Dodgers. He’s already hit 15 homers despite not being an everyday guy. His OPS is great this season (.793) well above the MLB average of .725.
His defense? Oh yeah, it’s really good, too. It’s easy to go with Hernandez because every time he steps up to the plate he has the potential to do something great. We saw it in NLCS Game 5, and even though he, or anyone, may never be able to recreate that feat, he’ll be held in high esteem for it, and every other homer he hits while donning a Dodgers uni.
Jason’s pick — Current streak 0: Chris Taylor
I have been very unsuccessful in this series recently and don’t really know what to do. It almost feels like my selections are guaranteed to go hitless.
To determine my selection tonight, I looked at the Dodgers’ batting average against Lucchesi when they faced him. The player with the best average, Enrique Hernandez, is 2-3 against Lucchesi. However, I did not want to copy Sarah and throw my bad luck on her selection.
Thus, I am going with the player with the second-best batting average (they are all relatively small sample sizes), Chris Taylor. Taylor is a whopping 1-2 off Lucchesi in his career. That one hit, though, was a home run.
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Hopefully, Taylor can recapture his 2017 magic tonight to counteract the bad luck my selections cause on people. If so, my streak can finally get back off of ground zero.