Jim Cella
PHOENIX—-For everything that’s gone wrong in 2020, the baseball gods decided to give Dodger fans a ray of sunshine on Sunday. Clayton Kershaw returned, and it was 2014, a rested Cody Bellinger was his 2019 self, the 365 million-dollar man showed off his MVP form and the Dodgers’ all-time save leader did what he does best. It was truly a Sunday to savor. The only thing missing was the sea of Dodger Blue overwhelming the Arizona fans in Sedona Red at Chase Field.
Kershaw had one of his best outings in several years as he breezed through 5.2 innings, threw 81 pitches (51 for strikes), allowed only three hits and struck out six in the Dodgers’ 3-0 shutout over the Diamondbacks. Bellinger and Mookie Betts both hit homers and Kenley Jansen earned his second save of the season. The victory helped Los Angeles take three out of four from Arizona to claim their second straight road series. The Dodgers have now won five of their last six games and are 7-3 on the year. LA is in second place in the NL West, percentage points behind the 6-2 Rockies.
GAME RECAP: After having to miss an Opening Day start due to back soreness, the entire MLB nation watched, and waited, to see if Kershaw was on the downhill path of his career. Kershaw proceeded to let everyone know he’s not done being one of the top pitchers in the game. He started the game by retiring the first 10 batters he faced, had a back-to-back single hiccup before finishing off his stint by setting down seven of the next eight hitters.
The Dodgers gave Kershaw, and the Blue Pen, all the support they would need by scoring a pair of runs in the first. Betts added another insurance run with a solo shot into the 2013 NL West-clinching pool. The 2-run first was supplied off the bat of Bellinger who golfed a line drive over the right field fence for his first long ball of the year.
Jansen finished off the series-capturing win by pitching a scoreless ninth. He beaned Starling Marte to start the inning but fanned Christian Walker and Eduardo Escobar before Kole Calhoun hit a deep fly to center field which the speedy Bellinger easily ran down.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
SERIES STUFF: The Dodgers earned their second straight series win of the year and their fifth series victory over Arizona in the past two seasons. Los Angeles, which also took three of four in the first series of the year in 2019 vs. the D-backs, took four of the six series between the teams last year. The Dodgers are now 216-179 lifetime vs. Arizona and 91-89 at Chase Field.
GLORY ROAD: Los Angeles is now 5-1 (.833) on the road this year. Last year the Dodgers were 47-34 (.580) away from Chavez Ravine which was tied for the best mark in the NL
GLORY ROAD 2: The NL West has been the kindest to road teams among any division in MLB this year. Paced by the Dodgers’ 5-1 mark, away clubs have posted a 16-11 record in the first 10 games of the year.
WE LOVE THE WEST: The Dodgers are now 18-6 in the last 24 games against NL West teams. During that stretch they have outscored their divisional opponents by a combined margin of 140-66.
KERSHAW KEEPS GOING: Kershaw continues to add to his legacy in Dodgers’ history. The win was his 170th for LA, his six strikeouts brought his career K total to 2,470 and he has now pitched 2,280.0 innings for the Dodgers. He is currently fifth in club history in wins (4th – Brickyard Kennedy (1892-1903) – 177), third in strikeouts (2nd – Don Drysdale (1956-69) – 2,486) and 11th in innings pitched (10th – Sandy Koufax (1955-66 – 2,324.1). He also added to his club record totals in winning percentage (.696), WHIP (1.01), hits/9 innings (6.79) and K/9 innings (9.75).
WE’LL TAKE IT FROM HERE: Kershaw left the mound in the sixth inning and actually had a grin on his normally intense game face. Fans could say that he was just happy to be pitching in a real game after an 8-month layoff, but the real reason could be that he knew he was handing his win chances to the best bullpen in MLB. Pedro Baez took over for Kershaw and pitched 1.1 scoreless innings. Baez handed the baton to Scott Alexander who put up a bagel in the eighth before giving way to Jansen. The Blue Pen has only allowed one earned run in 29.0 innings (0.31 ERA) since leaving LA and has only allowed five earned runs in 45.2 innings (0.99 ERA) of work in 2020. And yes, those numbers lead MLB.
SCOTTY 2 HOTTY: Scott Alexander has been a different pitcher in 2020. The left hander struck out all three batters he faced on Sunday. He has appeared in three games, pitched 3.2 innings and hasn’t allowed an earned run. Opposing batters are hitting .182 against the 31-year-old and he has a 1.09 WHIP. Both of those numbers are career bests for Alexander.
LEFT SIDE: Left pitchers in the Blue Pen have been especially dominant this year. Southpaws have now pitched 15.2 innings and allowed only one earned run (0.59 ERA). It gets better as opposing hitters have only 10 hits and have struck out 19 times.
GIVE HIM A RAISE: Mark Prior took over for legendary pitching coach Rick Honeycutt his season and has responded by fashioning the best staff in MLB. The Dodgers currently lead baseball in ERA (1.84), batting average (.188) and innings pitched (93.0). LA is also second in fewest HRs allowed (4).
7 THE HARD WAY: Betts extended his hitting streak to seven games with a 1-out double to right field in the third inning. He was 2-for-3 on the day but was pulled from the game after his oppo splash down HR in the fifth. Betts left the game with a sore middle finger on his left hand. The good news for Dodgers’ fans is that postgame x-rays were negative and Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts said he will be assessed on a day-to-day basis. Betts upped his season average to .289 for the year after stumbling out of the gates with a .150 average in the first four games of the year.
HIT PARADE: The Dodgers outhit Arizona 9-4 on Sunday and had a 36-19 edge in hits in the series. LA has now had at least nine hits in six of their 10 games in 2020. The Dodgers are hitting .253 as a team in their first 10 games which is fifth best in the NL and eighth in MLB.
POWER RETURNS: The Dodgers had two more home runs on Sunday and powered out 11 in the series in the launching pad of Chase Field. Los Angeles has had at least two long balls in five straight games and has 13 during that stretch. The Dodgers only had four HRs in the first five games of the year. Los Angeles is tied for the lead in MLB in home runs with 17 (1.70/game). Last year the Dodgers finished fourth in MLB in long balls with 279 (1.72/game).
MR. 994: Justin Turner was the only other Dodgers’ player besides Betts with more than one hit on Sunday. Turner was 2-for-4 and scored on Bellinger’s blast in the first. 2020 has been a series of streaks for the third baseman. Turner started the year with a 5-game hit streak then went hitless in three straight and has now hit safely in the last three. He is hitting .282 on the year which is fifth best on the team. Turner now has 994 career hits.
FATHERHOOD FOR THE WIN: AJ Pollock had another base knock on Sunday and continues to lead the team in hitting after missing all of summer camp to be with his wife and baby daughter after Maddi was born prematurely on Mar. 19 and had to spend time in the NICU. Pollock returned to the team just before the start of the regular season and has made the first 10 contests look like a sandlot pick-up game. He has hit safely in seven of the eight games he has appeared and has a robust .370 average. He also leads the team in on-base percentage (.433).
ON DECK: The Dodgers had another happy flight after winning on Sunday and boarding the plane to San Diego. Los Angeles will open a 3-game series at Petco Park on Monday at 6:10 p.m. The Padres are 1-game behind the Dodgers with a 6-4 record and are coming off a pair of losses at Colorado. Walker Buehler will make his second start of the year for LA. He went 3.2 innings in a no decision against Houston on July 28. In his first start, he gave up a pair of runs and struck out three. Good news for Dodgers’ fans as Buehler owns the Padres with a 4-0 career record and a 0.64 ERA. He has also struck out 42 in 28.0 innings of work against San Diego. Last year he was 2-0 and only allowed one earned run in 15.0 innings. The Padres are scheduled to throw right hander Chris Paddack in the opener. He is 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA in his first two starts of 2020. He is in his second year in MLB and went 9-7 with a 3.33 in 2019. Paddack started three times against the Dodgers, all of which were at Dodger Stadium, last year and was 0-1 with a 5.65 ERA.
