In large part led by Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Chris Taylor and Justin Turner, the Los Angeles Dodgers have boasted one of the better lineups in baseball this season. They’ve stalled of late, however, which has correlated with Bellinger’s stint on the disabled list.
Since an eight-run outburst in the series opener against the Detroit Tigers, the Dodgers have scored three or fewer runs in six of their last 10 games. Included in that stretch are two games in which they were shut out.
The bats came alive at hitter-friendly Chase Field on Tuesday night, with Yasiel Puig and Chris Taylor each hitting towering home runs and Adrian Gonzalez roping an RBI double to right field.
While the end result was a 7-6 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes his offense has turned the corner and is reverting back to its previous form, according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“After the first inning, we played a very good baseball game. We’ve run into some good pitching and the bats sort of went sour, but they’re back,” Roberts said. “Cody hit a homer tonight and sac fly [in a rehab game] and will be back in the lineup tomorrow. To get Yasmani going again, Yasiel the entire second half, C.T. and I thought J.T. [Justin Turner, who had a double] looked a lot better in the batter’s box. Even though there was a loss there, there were some encouraging things on the offensive side.”
Bellinger’s return should provide a boon for the Dodgers, who are 78-23 in games their rookie plays in and 13-16 when he does not appear. They went 4-5 since Bellinger’s string of 101 consecutive games played was snapped due to a mild right ankle sprain that required a stint on the disabled list.
Their current three-game losing streak is the first since June 4-6; the Dodgers have not dropped four games in a row this season.
Even with the current skid, Los Angeles entered play Wednesday with the best record in baseball and 11.5 games ahead of the Washington Nationals in that regard.
