The Los Angeles Dodgers punctuated a stretch of 18 consecutive games after the All-Star break with a series sweep of the San Diego Padres, led by contributions from Tyler Anderson, Cody Bellinger and Freddie Freeman on Sunday night.
The Dodgers extended their winning streak to a season-high-tying eight games, and went 14-4 during the latest stretch without a day off.
“I think we’ve all felt the special feeling,” Freeman said of the Dodgers’ recent play. “Even when we were winning games early on in the season, we were telling you guys, we weren’t playing the baseball that we thought — we were playing baseball and we were still winning games — and now we’re playing the baseball that we envisioned, and we’re not losing many games since then.
“I mean, 18 games out of the break and we play that kind of baseball over that course of 18 games to end it like we did over that stretch, that’s a pretty good run.”
Several Dodgers denied having added motivation facing the Padres, who garnered plenty of notoriety at the trade deadline by acquiring Josh Bell, Brandon Drury, Josh Hader and Juan Soto. Freeman became the latest to echo that sentiment.
“I think you guys knew going into this series, it was just another series for us,” he said. “Obviously this is my first year here, rivalries and stuff, I’m getting used to them. But for me, I just look at the schedule, we play the schedule, and I think that’s what we had our mindset going into the series, and we treated it as any other series.
“And we came out here and played the baseball we’ve been playing for two months now. And when we play our kind of baseball, it’s going to be tough to beat us.”
Freeman: Dodgers playing well for months
Although sweeping the San Francisco Giants and Padres in back-to-back series has made headlines, Freeman believes the Dodgers have played at a high level for a much longer stretch.
“I feel like we’ve been doing that kind of series for a couple of months now, really,” he said. “You know, four-game series, we lost one to the Rockies, that’s going to happen in four-game series. But for two months, I feel like we’ve just been playing really good baseball.
“With how complete this team is that we have, when you play both sides of the baseball, pitching and the offense, getting two out hits. Cody getting going, Max (Muncy) is getting going. Our bullpen has been unbelievable.
“So when you just kind of put it all together like we have last couple months, it’s going to be tough to beat us.”
Are you following Dodger Blue on Instagram? It’s the best way to see exclusive coverage from games and events, get your questions answered, and more!
