Los Angeles Dodgers: Opening weekend — the good, bad and ugly

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ first series of the 2019 season is in the books and told us a good amount about the team we are going to see this season.

With a comeback 8-7 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Los Angeles Dodgers opened up their 2019 campaign with a 3-1 series win.

The four-game series yielded four similar games: two blowouts and two close games. The Dodgers’ only blemish being a six-hour, 13-inning, twice blown lead loss that was the longest Dodgers’ regular season game (Full disclosure this writer was there for all 13 innings and mostly ticked off).

With the season off to a good start, let’s look at what the Dodgers got out of their series with the Diamondbacks:

The Good

In 2018 the Los Angeles Dodgers were a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of team. They led the National League in home runs but were in the towards the bottom in hitting with runners in scoring position. So far in 2019, the Dodgers are avoiding these contradictions.

In the four-game series, the Dodgers outscored the Diamondbacks 42-22, the big boppers were Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger. Pederson is hitting .467 with three home runs, driving in five home runs and scoring seven

Meanwhile, Bellinger is leading the Dodgers home run parade, hitting four of the Dodgers ’14 four-baggers while also leading the team in runs batted in with eight and scoring seven runs.

This, along with a lineup that saw the return of Corey Seager and the signing of AJ Pollock, means the Dodgers should avoid the scoring droughts they suffered in 2018.

The Bad

In his first start of the season on Sunday Walker Buehler did not look like the “ace” he was being touted before the start of the season. After cruising through three shutout innings Buehler imploded in the top of the fourth, giving up five earned runs.

Those five runs were more than the three previous starters combined (4). Buehler didn’t strike a single batter out; in 2018 Buehler never struck out fewer than two batters.

All that being said, thanks to the Dodgers comeback win, Buehler was not saddled with the loss. After only making one start in spring training, Buehler may have been rusty.

His velocity stayed in the high 90s but he had trouble locating his pitches, this may point to more of a mechanical issue than a physical.

The Ugly

Dodgers fans must have had a bad feeling of deja vu a couple of times this weekend. Last year the bullpen never did have a measure of consistency and it reared its ugly head in the World Series; the bullpen blew games two and four, sinking the Dodgers’ chances of a title.

In this series, free agent signing Joe Kelly blew not one but two leads, leading to the 13 inning marathon. Signed to be the setup man to Kenley Jansen, Kelly did not look particularly sharp. Hopefully, it was just a case of the first time jitters.