MidValleySports.Com

By Those Deferred BenchWarmers

Well, 162-0 is out of the question, but the Dodgers still saw some positives in the form of Tommy Edman continuing to hit, Roki Sasaki settling in during his third start, and the bullpen generally looking strong. A couple things are worth monitoring, however, including Blake Snell’s injury and Andy Pages’ progress during his sophomore campaign.

The Weekend in Review
Headline for the Weekend: Dodgers Drop First Series of the Year

Results: The Dodgers suffered their first two defeats of the season, sandwiching a 3-1 win between two one-run losses (3-2 in game 1, and 8-7 in game 2).

Pitching Analysis:
The Dodgers gave up 18 walks against the Phillies, with 16 of those coming in the 2 losses.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto had another quality start in game 1 against the Phillies, but got no run support in his first loss of the season: 6 innings, 5k, 3bb, 1 unearned run.

It did not look good for Roki Sasaki in game 2 of the series. Although he looked more in command of his stuff, the first two hitters singled and the Phillies were threatening with runners at the corners right away. But Sasaki settled down, striking out Bryce Harper before inducing two ground balls to second. The Phillies scored a run, but that was it. Sasaki was in complete control after that, allowing only 1 more hit and walking two before exiting in the fifth. He was responsible for the runners on first and second though, with Anthony Banda coming in to relieve him. Banda got two flyouts, including one on a 3-2 pitch with Bryson Stott on the move. Teoscar Hernandez caught the ball and quickly fired it to first to double up Stott and preserve the one-run lead.

The other interesting inning was Tanner Scott’s 3 pitch ninth. After a bad hop ate up Max Muncy for a single, Scott got a ground ball double play and Max Kepler swung at the next pitch, flying out to left.

Jack Dreyer continues to earn his spot on the roster with another solid outing on Sunday: 2.1 innings and 4k’s to keep the Dodgers in the game.

Hitting Analysis:
The bats were quiet in game 1 for the Dodgers, with only one hit and a walk in the first 6 innings. Their second hit came in the 7th from a Teoscar Hernandez double but they were unable to capitalize on it. The only runs came off a Tommy Edman homerun in the 9th to make the score 3-2. After a walk, the Dodgers got doubled up on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out with Muncy at the plate and Chris Taylor thrown out to end the game.

In game 2 the Dodgers were able to get the offense going early in the 2nd with a Kike Hernandez 2-run home run off of Aaron Nola. The bats stayed quiet until Michael Conforto was able to hit a solo shot in the 6th. In the final three innings the Dodgers got no hits, but luckily the pitching kept the door shut also.

Game 3 was the Teoscar show and he kept the team afloat with his 2 home runs, double, and 5 RBI. Will Smith and Mookie delivered one RBI a piece. Christopher Sanchez struck out Shohei Ohtani 3 times to keep him at bay.

Defense/Base Running Analysis: Andy Pages strikes again! We might just call this the Andy Pages Analysis. Aside from going 1 for 9 at the plate this weekend, he got picked off to kill a potential rally in game 1 and misplayed a flyball in game 3 after the Dodgers took the lead in the 7th, setting the stage for the Phillies to win the game.

Takeaway for the Weekend:
The Dodgers are not invincible, but they truly are never out of a game. The pitching carried the bats in games 1 and 2 while the bats carried the pitching in game 3. In game 1, the bats were quiet until the 9th, but they mounted a rally and it really did feel like they were going to win again. In game 3,Tyler Glasnow couldn’t get an out in the third, and after taking an early 2-0 lead, the Dodgers were down 6-2 heading into the 4th. They fought back with one run in the 4th, and one run in the 5th, before taking the lead with a three-run seventh.

Burning Question (And Attempted Answer): How long will Blake Snell be out?
With the depth of the Dodgers and top-notch farm system, the Dodgers are more equipped to deal with injuries – and more equipped to be cautious. Much like Freeman, the vibes are better-to-be-safe-than-sorry. We expect Snell to be on the mound at the first opportunity following his IL stint.

Around the MLB:
The Rockies turned a 5-4-3 triple play vs the Athletics for the first triple play of the season
Valdimir Guerrero Jr. signed a 14 year-$500 million contract with the Blue Jays Sunday night.

Next Series’ Preview
Matchups:
The Dodgers continue their east coast road trip with a three game series vs the 3-6 Nationals. The Nats are looking to stay in the win column after taking two out of three vs NL West foe Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Nats will trot out former Padre Mackenzie Gore in game 1, who will be looking for a better outing after giving up 3 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks in 5 innings vs the Bluejays, which could have been much worse if not for a couple of stellar defensive plays from former LSU standout Dylan Crews.

Analysis:
On paper, this would be the perfect bounce back series for the Dodgers after a hard fought series against the Phillies. But with the distractions of a visit to the White House and Freddie Freeman and Blake Snell going on the injured list, this has the perfect makings of a trap series.

The Dodgers should be able to put up some runs as the Nationals rank in the bottom third in team ERA (4.78), strikeouts (65), opposing batting average (.282), and hard hit balls (95), which are balls with an exit velocity of 95 or harder.

Although the Nats rank last in hard hit balls with 67 through the first 9 games, they are trending in the right direction offensively with nine extra base hits against the Dbacks, including three home runs on Friday night.

What to Look For:
The Nationals’ bullpen has struggled to start the season, ranking near the bottom in ERA (6.46) and WHIP (1.83). Look for the Dodgers to do what they do best and run up the pitch count against the Nats’s starters to get to their struggling bullpen. If they happen to be losing when the Nats turn to the pen, don’t touch that dial! The Dodgers have the most “come from behind wins” in the MLB (again, misnomer of a name/stat), and they’re late inning hitting has kept them in every game so far.