Steve Webb
ANAHEIM, CA — Dear Dodgers, please remember these last two weeks. Hold on to them as you go into the All-Star break. This is the team that you truly are. The team that crushes opponents like paper cups crushed under the bleachers. In the last game before some much needed rest, the Dodgers took out the can of whup *ss on the Angels. They pulverized four very long home runs and got a great start from Julio Urias en route to a 7-1 victory over the Angels to wrap up a perfect freeway series for 2022.
Trea x 2 to get the Dodgers out in front
The Dodgers wasted little time getting on the board on Saturday night. After Mookie Betts flew out to lead off the game, Trea Turner dug in against starter Jose Suarez. Suarez started off the at-bat with a get-me-over curveball low in the zone, and Turner just unloaded on the pitch. He drilled it to the deepest part of the park for a no-doubt solo home run to start the Dodgers off on what would turn out to be a very good night at the plate.
Then, in the top of third, Turner decided to double his fun. This time, it was a high fastball that Turner chose to punish. Different pitch, same result. Turner hit almost a carbon copy of his previous shot, landing 407 feet from home plate over the centerfield fence for a second homer of the night, this one a two-run job that made the score 3-0.
Muncy blast doubles Dodger lead
In that same inning, Max Muncy put this game pretty much out of reach for the Angels. After Turner’s shot cleared the bases, the Dodgers got right back to work. Freddie Freeman hit a double and Justin Turner drew a walk to put two men on for Max Muncy, who stepped in with two outs in the inning. Muncy got a tasty 2-0 sinker up in the zone, and he totally obliterated the pitch. He deposited the rock among the paying customers in right center, some 410 feet from home plate. It had to have felt great for Muncy to make such solid contact on the last day before the break. It will give him a little to build on in the second half of the season.
Freeman jack makes it 7-0
The Dodgers scored their final run of the game pretty much the way they scored the first, with a no-doubt solo homer. This time, it was the insanely hot Freddie Freeman who did the honor, jumping all over a hanging slider from reliever Elvis Peguero, and Elvis’s pitch left the building (well, not quite, but it landed a long way from home). In addition to the home run, Freeman hit a double in this one as well, making his OPS for the last seven games approximately equal to the GDP of Guatemala (actually 1.732). So, yeah, that’s pretty good.
Gifted with run support, Urías cruises
Julio Urias was the Dodger starter in this one, and his great start got lost a little in the offensive fireworks. Not that he was complaining much. He’s been a hard-luck loser in more starts than he’d care to mention this year. Still, this has to be one of his best starts of 2022. He wasn’t really challenged much the entire game, and the one time there was a threat, he managed to pitch his way out of it with no damage. The Angels had runners at the corners with no out in the sixth, but Julio was able to get a popup, a a strikeout, and a grounder to third to escape.
The lone blemish on El Culichi’s stat line in this one: a solo shot from Brandon Marsh when the game was out of reach in the bottom of the 7th. The final line for the evening: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K. Caleb Ferguson and Phil Bickford finished things up for the Dodgers’ tenth win of the last twelve games.
All-Star Break, then the Giants
This completes the first half of the 2022 season. The Dodgers are now a tidy 60-30 on the year. That puts them on line for a 108-win season, which would be the most in Dodger history. But we all know that the regular season is not the final destination. The Dodgers need to keep the pedal on the metal all the way to a ring.
The All-Star Game will be played on Tuesday evening at Dodger Stadium. Last I checked there were a few tickets still available if you have $500 or so to blow on an exhibition game. After the break, the Dodgers get right back into the thick of the NL West race with a 4-game series against the Giants at home, and then we get to beat up on the hapless Nats for a while before hitting the road for the first trip of the second half, to Colorado and San Francisco. Should be a great second half. Hope you’re with DodgersBeat all the way to October!
Cans of Corn…
- Tyler Anderson was named to the All-Star game to replace Giants’ pitcher Carlos Rodon.
- Max Muncy completely destroyed the ball on his homer. More of this please.
- This was Trea Turner’s eleventh multi-homer game of his career.
- Freeman gacked a pop fly from Shohei Ohtani. Just lost it in the lights I guess. Oops.
- Defense overall was a little suspect in this one, but Urias managed to pitch around it.
- Man, when you’re losing 7-1 and you put on that dopey cowboy hat after hitting a homer, you just look sad.
- Andrew Heaney’s rehab start didn’t go great: 4 ER and two dingers over 2.2 innings. It’s going be a while, it looks like, before he’s ready for prime time.
- Now all we need is Snitker to announce that Kersh will be starting on Tuesday, and the weekend will be complete.
