The Los Angeles Dodgers returned the majority of their World Series core while reacquiring Matt Kemp over the offseason, but have largely struggled in the power department thus far.
One explanation was the injuries to Corey Seager and Justin Turner, as well as down-seasons from the likes of Yasiel Puig and Chris Taylor. Turner has since returned from the disabled list and hit his first home run over the weekend.
Cody Bellinger and Yasmani Grandal are tied for the team lead with eight home runs, followed by Taylor and Kiké Hernandez who each have seven, and Matt Kemp and Max Muncy both at six, while Puig has five.
No other Dodgers player has hit more than two home runs. Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi believes the club hadn’t been winning close games due to their decline in home run production from a year ago, per Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times:
“We just haven’t hit homers,” Zaidi said. “When you look at our overarching team performance, I think we still have a positive run differential. There are some positive indicators. But we have been outhomered. We’re a team that’s played a lot of close games. When you’re playing close games and you’re getting outhomered, it’s really tough to win those games.”
The Dodgers are 5-8 in one-run games this season, which is a far cry from their solid 25-19 showing last season. That being said, it’s certainly fair to say the club’s lack of home runs have attributed to those struggles to some degree.
That’s changed in the last 10 games, however, as the Dodgers have out-homered their opponents, 16 to seven, en route to eight victories during that stretch. But even with the recent surge, Los Angeles has only hit 54 home runs this season, which ranks 20th in the Majors.
That’s in contrast to last year, when the Dodgers ranked 11th with 221 home runs en route to their first Fall Classic appearance since 1988.
