Los Angeles Dodgers: Positive and negative takeaways from Game 1

Negative: Left-handed pitching might actually not be an advantage

The Los Angeles Dodgers have three southpaws in the team’s four-man postseason rotation and are going to need a good start out of Hyun-Jin Ryu in Game 2 to avoid falling into the dreaded 0-2 hole. Typically, having left-handed pitching is a huge advantage for a team; not for the Dodgers in this series.

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The Dodgers allowed eight earned runs. Five of which game against Kershaw, two coming after he left the game and Ryan Madson came on in relief. To be fair, it was a right-handed pitcher that allowed these runs, but Madson nearly got out of it unscathed with a double play ball that Jackie Bradley Jr. ran out.

Julio Urias, Pedro Baez and Alex Wood were all credited with an earned run, all coming off the home runt that Wood allowed in the seventh inning. Urias allowed the double to Benintendi, which really shouldn’t have been a double, Baez came in and locked it down (his earned run coming from an intentional walk) and Wood came in and let up the big blast.

It was the southpaws that burned the Dodgers tonight and it is not hard to see why. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez hit .368 and .336 against left-handed pitchers, respectively. Steve Pearce is a good platoon bat and Benintendi, although he historically hits southpaws worse, put together a 4-4 game.

That is concerning as this series goes on and will force the Dodgers to rely more on the bullpen. This offense is just so deep and talented that every single pitch becomes magnified; the Red Sox have a better chance with Kershaw, Ryu and Hill on the mound.

Hopefully, the Dodgers can jump out to an early Game 2 lead to allow Ryu to get in a groove and pitch with some comfort. If the Dodgers can score more than one run in the first, I really like their chances.