Steve Webb
SAN DIEGO — If Mookie and Max get rolling, look out. For the first two weeks of the season, stars Mookie Betts and Max Muncy have been conspicuously quiet, even as the Dodgers have gotten off to a league-best 9-3 start. But, in a very encouraging sign both players were big contributors to the Dodgers 6-1 win over the San Diego Padres Friday night. They both went big fly in the fifth and then Muncy drove in a pair in the seventh. Finally, to put a cherry on top, Mookie homered again to put Julio Urias and the Dodgers in the win column for the tenth time this season.
Padres score first
If there has been a nagging issue these first two weeks, other than the offensive struggles of a few key Dodgers, it has been the Dodgers inability to make the key play in the field when it was needed. They were only charged for one error on the night, but I counted at least three plays that could have been made, but weren’t. The most costly of the three was shortstop Trea Turner‘s misplay on a potential double play ball that could have ended the second inning. Turner had trouble extricated the ball from his glove and his toss to Gavin Lux was a bit high, allowing Jurickson Profar to scamper home from third with the game’s first run.
Urias pitches his second straight solid outing
Other than that one run in the second inning, Dodger starter Julio Urias was pretty stingy in this one. Over five innings of work, Urias surrendered just two hits and that lone run. He did walk three Padres, but other than that was pretty sharp. His ERA, which ballooned to 13.50 after his disastrous season debut in Colorado, is now a tidy 3.00 after his second win of the season.
Betts blasts, Muncy mashes
Perhaps the best moments of the entire night came in the top of the fifth inning, when two key Dodgers came out of their early season slumbers. Leading off the inning, Mookie Betts got ahead of Padre starter Nick Martinez. And then he got the pitch he’s been looking for all season. He got a middle-in cutter that caught way too much of the plate, and Betts just demolished the pitch, sending it into the upper tank in left field. As he rounded the bases, the million-dollar smile returned, and Betts must have felt as if a huge boulder had been lifted off his chest.
Then, to make it an even better evening, Max Muncy followed up a couple of hitters later with a solo shot of his own. Though Muncy has been making solid contact all year, he’s run into a lot of hard luck early on, so he finally decided to hit one where it couldn’t get robbed, over the right field fence. It was now 2-1 Dodgers and they would never look back.
Dodgers add on with three-run seventh
Mookie and Max were in the thick of things in the Dodgers’ second rally of the night, in the seventh inning. Betts led off with a walk, and then after a couple of singles from Freddie Freeman and Trea Turner, the bags were juiced with Angelenos. And who should come up but good ol’ Max Muncy, who delivered a two-run single off reliever Tim Hill. Then, Justin Turner hit a long fly ball out to left field that pushed another run across to make the score 5-1 Dodgers.
And then, just to add some more awesome sauce to the top of this sundae, Mookie Betts hit a second long home run to left in the top of the ninth. The game was well in hand by then, but it hardly mattered. Betts, who came into the game with a anemic OPS, had the best game of the season so far. And there was much rejoicing.
Pen perfect to finish things off
After Julio Urias exited the game after five, the Dodgers’ pen put up nothing but zeroes the rest of the night. Daniel Hudson, Evan Phillips, Phil Bickford, Alex Vesia and David Price combined for four shutout innings on just two Padre hits. But good as the pitching was (and it was good), the story of the night was Muncy and Betts. Between the two of them, they reached base eight times, with three home runs, and five RBI. You get that kind of production out of your first four hitters, you’re going to win some ballgames.
Now 10-3, the Dodgers go back at it against the Padres on Saturday night. In the absence of Andrew Heaney, Tyler Anderson will be getting his first Dodger start after piggybacking Tony Gonsolin in his first two outings of the year. Toeing the rubber for San Diego will be our old buddy Yu Darvish, who has been spectacular twice and awful once in his three starts this year. Game time is 5:40, so get that dinner out of the way early.
Cans of Corn…
- The Dodgers now have beaten the Padres 10 straight times.
- Freddie Freeman, who went 2-for-4 on the night, now has an MLB-leading 11 opposite field hits already this season.
- Evan Phillips continues to impress. He now has retired 14 straight.
- No Blake Treinen for a while. The Dodgers’ best reliever last year is experiencing some shoulder discomfort, so was put on the 10-day IL to get some healing in.
- Garrett Cleavinger is back on the roster, after an extremely short stay in OKC.
- Matt Beaty was announced as a Padre pinch hitter, but got pulled again when Dave Roberts brought in Alex Vesia.
- Somebody whipped a beer can at Cody Bellinger as he went to field a fly ball in the late innings. Stay classy, San Diego.
- Tonight marked the first game broadcast with Jessica Mendoza as part of the SportsNet LA team. She is much less annoying without A-Rod and Matty V. around.
