MidValleySports.Com

By Those Deferred BenchWarmers

The Dodgers reached the halfway point of the season in Colorado. Their 8-1 victory and the Tigers 3-0 loss to the A’s allowed the Dodgers to tie for the best record in baseball at the midway point of the season. Both teams won on Thursday and sit at 51-31 for the season.

The Week in Review
Headline for the Week: Dodgers Sweep Rockies 

Results: The Dodgers stormed out to a big lead in game 1 before the Rockies clawed their back and ultimately fell short, and Max Muncy led the offense in game two with a rain-aided single and grand slam. Clayton Kershaw led the Dodgers in game 3, as the Dodgers capped off the sweep with a 3-1 victory. 

Pitching Analysis: The Dodger starters were superb, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw combined to strike out 11 batters in 11 innings. They only gave up three hits and one run in their combined starts, and Clayton Kershaw is now three strikeouts away from 3000. Tanner Scott got his 16 and 17th saves by throwing 2-plus innings of shutout baseball, Alex Vesia got his 14 and 15th holds, and Michael Kopech extended his scoreless innings streak to start the season. 
  
Hitting Analysis: Freddie Freeman started the series 0 for 11 before singling in the go-ahead run in the sixth. Overall, the Dodgers went 8 for 36 with runners in scoring position – a .222 clip. The Dodgers still lead the majors in BA with RISP (.265), and the fact that they still managed to score 20 runs with those numbers is a testament to where the offense is as a whole and the fact that Coors Field is still Coors Field. Obviously the Dodgers can’t always hit well with runners in scoring position, so getting wins even when they’re not is important.

Burning Question (And Attempted Answer): Do the Dodgers actually hate Yoshinobu Yamamoto?? We jest of course, but the Dodgers have scored 1 or 0 runs with him on the mound in 11 of his 16 starts. They scored 8 runs in his start on Wednesday… all as soon as he was pulled from the game due to the rain delay. The rain delay helped the Dodgers score when it camouflaged Max Muncy’s pop up to first (the ball dropped allowing two runners to score), but the rain also deprived us of what was shaping up to be a dominant performance from Yamamoto. He went 5 innings, allowing only a hit and walk and striking out 6 on only 56 pitches. Alas, the 1+ hour rain delay forced the end of Yamamoto’s day. 

Next Series’ Preview
Matchups: The Dodgers travel to Kansas City to take on the Royals.

Analysis: The Royals are a fringe wild card contender and are a bit streaky. They had a strong 18 game stretch in April and May where they went 16-2, but followed that up by losing six of seven. Currently, they are in the midst of a 5 game losing streak. The 10 games before this stretch? 6 straight losses, then four straight wins. 

What to Look For: The Royals will roll out a trio of starters with ERAs under three, and as a staff they are among the top 5 in ERA and rank second in the majors with 39 quality starts. The Dodgers will counter with Dustin May, opener Shohei Ohtani, and then presumably another opener. It’s important for Freddie Freeman to get back on track or get some rest, and for Hyeseong Kim to get some playing time! Michael Conforto also may have turned a corner, so it’ll be interesting to see how he does against Royal pitching.