The Los Angeles Dodgers enter play Tuesday night in the midst of their second three-game winning streak this season, and having scored 30 runs over the stretch.
While the Dodgers erupted for 12 runs in their rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates, there wasn’t complete satisfaction expressed by manager Dave Roberts. “You can always get better (as a team),” he said.
“Certain guys in our lineup are having consistent at-bats, and I think other guys are still finding ways to get hits. I still think the at-bat quality needs to get better.”
The Dodgers have been sparked by Cody Bellinger’s arrival, Chris Taylor’s emergence, and Yasiel Puig’s flashes of excellence at the plate. Though, Puig has struggled to consistently get the ball in the air. He leads the Majors with 11 double plays.
Collectively, Los Angeles rank 11th in slugging percentage (.412), ninth in on-base plus slugging (.753), sixth in wOBA (.329) and ninth in wRC+ (109). The Dodgers are fifth in the Majors with 125 walks and square in the middle of the pack with 254 strikeouts.
Their 4.97 runs per game is tied with the Chicago Cubs for sixth-best overall. “Bottom line, we are scoring more runs,” Roberts added.
“But when you’re going to run into some good pitching, we need to put forth more consistent at-bats.” What’s remained a bit of an Achilles heel for the Dodgers is southpaw pitching, particularly when facing the likes of an elite starter such as Jon Lester.
They’re batting just .235/.324/.364 with a .305 wOBA and 87 wRC+ in 443 plate appearances this season against a left-hander. In the near future, the Dodgers are tentatively scheduled to face a lefty in Tyler Anderson on Thursday, and Ty Blach on May 16.
