Los Angeles Dodgers: Big sluggers must come through vs. Mets

The Los Angeles Dodgers square off in game two of a three-game series with the New York Mets after a gut wrenching loss on Monday night.

Nothing seemed to go right for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night and the baseball gods seemed to be paying the team back after the constant heroics against the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend.

The Dodgers could not catch a break, which is typically hard to do against Jacob deGrom, who is arguably the front-runner for the National League Cy Young Award.

Los Angeles was able to muster one run off deGrom on a Justin Turner solo home run and deGrom himself drove in a run to equalize the game. While LA only scored once, the lineup drove the pitch count high enough to force deGrom out of the game after six innings.

That is where the team should have cracked the Mets’ shaky bullpen but were unable to do so. Despite fielding runners on first and third with no outs in the seventh, the Dodgers could not come up with a run after a Yasmani Grandal strikeout and Yasiel Puig double play.

An inning later, Manny Machado looked like he plated Justin Turner with a two-out double down the right field line. Unfortunately, the double hopped over the small right-field wall and Turner had to stay at third.

New York scored three in the top of the ninth and the Dodgers started to mount a comeback in the bottom of the ninth before Matt Kemp grounded into a game-ending double play.

Tonight, the Los Angeles Dodgers face a shaky starter in Jason Vargas and the sluggers are going to have to capitalize.

Sarah’s pick — Current streak 0: Max Muncy

My pick for today is Max Muncy. Max Muncy has been far and away the best slugger in this lineup all season long.

With 31 Home runs his contributions to this team cannot he undervalued so tonight as the Dodgers try and take back first with a win against the Mets, Muncy is the guy I’m going with tonight.

Yesterday was no easy task as the Dodgers faced Jacob deGrom but tonight is a whole new ballgame.

Jason’s pick — Current streak 0: David Freese

The Los Angeles Dodgers brought in David Freese for his veteran playoff experience as well as to help the team with its struggles against left-handed pitching. With a left-handed pitcher going tonight in Jason Vargas, Freese should get the start.

I think this is where we see Freese’s first big game as a Dodger as he will come up with his first home run in Dodger blue as well as another extra-base hit to drive in some runs.

This game seems to have all the makings of a Los Angeles Dodgers outbreak where the team scores in double figures. Leading that charge will be the new guy, David Freese.