The Dodgers picked up a very nice win in comeback fashion, which was their 35th comeback win of the year. That goes to show this club gets behind early a lot, but then comes back late a lot as well.
The Dodgers are still striking out too much, 14 times yesterday, but almost everybody contributed, which is how you bust out of slumps
At the end of the day, it felt like we stole one yesterday, which is more in line with how this team built the best record in the National League up until about a month ago.
On Monday, the game was dominated by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Mookie, Teo, and Rojas. Yesterday was the bullpen, Edman, Will, and Conforto, so it’s good to see this lineup lengthen like that, where any section can win a game on any given day.
Managers
This series features two of the most accomplished managers in the history of baseball in Terry Francona and Dave Roberts, and yesterday Roberts got the upper hand.
Roberts took Glasnow out at the perfect time, he put in 2 rookies, Dreyer and Casparius, he took out Banda with 2 outs, and brought in Diaz, who he left in for the next inning.
Then, after using Vesia for middle relief on Monday, he gave him the ball to get the last 3 outs on Tuesday, and Vesia plowed right through it.
Further, after the 2nd GREAT at bat from Michael Conforto, he pinch ran James Outman, who scored from 1st on the double by Will Smith, then went to Center for the bottom of the 9th.
Meanwhile, Terry Francona pinch hit for Jake Fraley in the next at bat after he hit a home run to tie the game, then he took our old buddy Scott Barlow out in favor of Graham Ashcraft, and the Dodgers scored 2 to tie the game in that frame.
Offense
Although the Dodgers won and the offense was resilient, the fact that Shohei Ohtani wore the Golden Sombrero stole the show. The Reds kept feeding him “strike to ball” backfoot sliders, then showing the fastball up and in, and he kept swinging at them, and missing.
That’s what happens when you have a “dead pull” approach.
Ohtani needs to pepper the Left-Center field gap to stay on the ball.
Tommy Edman gave the Dodgers the lead in the 2nd with a 2-run bomb, but, more than that, he’s filled in admirably at 3rd base in the stead of Max Muncy, which is exactly why the Dodgers coveted him so much this time last year.
Will Smith is amazing, and, yes, the 2 hits in the 7th were lucky because they weren’t hit very hard, but hitters tend to make their own luck when they put the ball in play.
Never apologize for a Texas League hit; they’re earned, and you know they’ve hit just as many balls hard that were caught, so it’s baseball evening itself out.
Freddie Freeman has looked much better lately, and if you watch the Dodgers Dawgs podcast, we mentioned on Saturday that his swing looked healthy again for the first time in a long time. So, it’s no surprise he’s hitting the ball well.
Glasnow
Much like Dustin May’s last start, the outing from Glasnow last night was weird and hard to evaluate. There were times he looked dominant, but, yet, he only had 3 Ks. He didn’t get hit much, but when he did, the ball left the yard.
And then the walks.
That’s the part he needs to clean up the most, no question. He was a touch erratic in his rehab outings, so still trying to knock off some rust, but, even as good as his stuff is, if he’s falling behind in counts and giving away free baseball, it’s not going to work.
Tonight, Shohei Ohtani takes the mound, and he’ll face Nick Martinez, a 6’1″ right-hander who enters with a 4.69 ERA.
Martinez is in the 86% in BB% and 5% in hard hit %, so he puts hitters in play, and typically when he does, it’s soft contact. He’s very unpredictable, which is why hitters have a hard time barreling him up. He throws his 4-seam the most, but just 22%, followed by his cutter at 20%, changeup at 19%, Sinker at 16%, then he’ll throw a handful of sliders and changeups as well.
He’s gonna try and get ahead with his 4-seam, then put the Dodgers hitters away with soft contact from his cutter, then swing and miss with his changeup.
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