The Los Angeles Dodgers snapped their season-worst six-game losing streak in a big way on Thursday afternoon, defeating the Miami Marlins, 7-0, to avoid being swept in the three game series.
The Dodgers’ offense exploded early in the contest, doing all of their damage in the third and fourth innings. Most of it was courtesy of Justin Turner, who the team greatly missed in the first quarter of the season.
With the game scoreless and the bases loaded in the third inning, Turner ripped a double to left field to clear the bases and drive in his first three runs of the season.
Turner followed with another double in the fourth inning to drive in two more runs, giving him career high-tying five big RBI on the day. He went 3-for-4 in the game, finishing his first series of the season at 6-for-13.
That is as impressive as it gets for someone who missed two months with a broken wrist and only had two rehab assignment games.
Two other Dodgers had big days at the plate as Matt Kemp also went 3-for-4 with two doubles, driving in a run. Yasiel Puig then continued his hot streak at the plate, hitting a home run for the third time in the last four games.
Puig reached base in four of his five plate appearances, going 2-for-3 with a walk. After a rough start to the season partly due to bad luck, Puig is has shown signs of life in the last week at the plate.
Just as important as the outburst at the plate for the Dodgers was the performance of Kenta Maeda, who had his best career start on Thursday.
Maeda tossed eight shutout innings, allowing just two hits and striking out eight without allowing a walk. He retired the final 17 batters faced and only required 96 pitches in his eight innings before giving way to Kenley Jansen to close out the victory.
