After breaking a franchise record by hitting 55 home runs in the month of June, the Los Angeles Dodgers have carried that hot-hitting into the month of July.
The offense outbursted for 21 hits and 17 runs in their series-opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night. They then followed that up on Tuesday by hitting six home runs, scoring eight more runs to route the Pirates once again, 8-3, at Dodger Stadium.
That gives the Dodgers 11 home runs in three games in July, which would put them on pace to break the franchise record once again, although they still have a long way to go and the month of July is shortened due to the All-Star break.
One person who is impressed with the power the Dodgers are displaying is manager Dave Roberts, who said he has never seen anything quite like this, via Kaelen Jones of MLB.com:
“When I take a step back and see what we’ve accomplished as a group as far as the OPS and slugging, it’s obviously unprecedented,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’re in some unchartered territory.”
Leading the way offensively is Max Muncy, who after hitting two more home runs on Tuesday, now has 20 on the season in just 63 games after being called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Even after a slow start to the season, the Dodgers lead the National League in home runs with 122, which is 14 more than the next team behind them, the Milwaukee Brewers (108). They have passed many of the top American League teams too, ranking third in all of baseball behind only the New York Yankees (141) and Boston Red Sox (124).
Behind Muncy, the Dodgers have six other players with at least 10 home runs on the season: Cody Bellinger (17), Matt Kemp (15), Kiké Hernandez (15), Joc Pederson (13), Yasmani Grandal (12) and Chris Taylor (10). This marks the first time in franchise history that seven players have had 10 or more home runs before the All-Star break, and that number could increase to eight if Yasiel Puig (9) hits one more.
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