Steve Webb
CINCINNATI, OH — All year long we’ve been hearing the questions. Sometimes whispered, sometimes a lot louder than that. “What’s wrong with JT? What’s What’s wrong with Muncy? What’s wrong with Belli?” Indeed, the middle of the Dodger lineup has been monumentally bad in the first half of 2022, with all three hitters hovering near the Mendoza line.
However, on this day in Cincinnati anyway, those questions were quieted for a game at least. Each of these Dodgers had a great day at the plate, combining for nine hits (three for extra bases) and four RBI. As the Dodgers rolled to a 10-5 win over the Reds, we got a hint of just how potent this lineup could be when everybody is producing.
Dodgers relentless at the plate
The Dodgers were a little rough on local boy Hunter Greene in this this one. They got to the Reds’ flamethrower early, and kept the pressure on throughout the afternoon. They started off by playing some small ball, and scoring a run in the second on a Cody Bellinger sac fly, but nothing was small for the Dodgers after that.
In the third, Freddie Freeman continued his torrid hitting with absolute moonshot of a two-run home run to right center off Greene to put the Dodgers up 3-0. Then, in the fourth, Cody Bellinger got in on the action, blasting a two-run jack of his own. In the fifth, it was Max Muncy‘s turn to go deep when he absolutely crushed another Greene pitch for a solo shot.
Finally, with the game pretty much on ice, Will Smith and Trayce Thompson joined in the fun with late inning dingers to make it a romp. Scattered in there were an RBI single from Freddie Freeman (his 10th RBI of the series), and an RBI double off the bat of Trea Turner, who had a three-hit game himself.
In all, it was a 16-hit attack for the Boys in Blue with hits up and down the lineup. This series was exactly what the Dodger offense needed to wake itself from its early summer slumber. Hopefully, this kind of production will follow them south to Georgia for the key weekend series against the Braves.
Kershaw stingy with runs in quality start
Clayton Kershaw continued to make some solid steps as he rounds into shape after his stint on the IL. If you asked him, he’d probably wasn’t that happy with the location of some of his pitches (as his numerous loud grunts from the mound would attest to), but he made the pitches that he needed to, and limited the damage to just one earned run over six innings of work. The hit count was a little high (seven), but Kersh struck out seven and walked only one on Thursday, so he continues to make progress on his path back to a normal workload.
Bickford makes it too close for comfort
With the Dodgers up 8-1 after six, Doc decided to give Kersh the rest of the day off. But a verrrrry rough outing from Phil Bickford as the first man out of the pen made things much closer than it should have been. Bickford gave up four runs in just 2/3 of an inning and needed Yency Almonte to bail him out in the seventh. Not ideal, but Almonte threw only ten pitches, so he should be ready for duty in Atlanta pretty quickly. David Price finished up the ball game with a mop-up job in the ninth, and the Reds were put out of their misery pretty quickly.
On to “Hotlanta”
Now 43-25, the Dodgers are only a couple of percentage points behind the Mets for the best winning percentage in the NL. But, their next opponent should be one of their biggest challenges of the year. After winning two of three from the Braves in April, the Dodgers roll into Atlanta this weekend to face the hottest team in baseball. After a very slow start, the Braves have been scorching in June, and have crawled right back into the thick of the NL East race, which they now trail by only four games.
This will be a particularly significant series for one Dodger in particular. Freddie Freeman will be getting his World Series ring this weekend, and there is sure to be all the feelings when he meets the Braves fans again after the acrimonious divorce that they went through in the offseason. Must see TV for sure. Friday’s game will be on SNLA, but both Saturday and Sunday will be nationally televised, on Fox and ESPN. All games will start at 4:00 PDT.
Cans of Corn…
- Phil Bickford just doesn’t have it this season. Not sure what’s going on there.
- JT had a couple of sweet picks in the field on Thursday. It was his best all-around game in a good long time.
- I think about twenty percent of the Dodgers’ run differential this year was courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds.
- Good to see Trayce Thompson go yard in this one. He hit that ball a ton.
- The biggest news out of this game may be (may) the offensive awakening of Max Muncy who went 3-for-4 with a long home run. In another at-bat, he hit a foul ball that nearly left the stadium.
