Dodgers 8 Reds 3: Home Runs Everywhere

As has been the case for the past few non-Kershaw/Greinke wins, the offense and bullpen paved the way to a Dodgers victory. The Dodgers hit 4 dingers tonight courtesy of Adrian Gonzalez, Yasiel Puig, Enrique Hernandez, and Justin Turner to lead the way to a 8-3 victory over the Reds.

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You’ve heard all about Kiké and Turner since Howie Kendrick hit the disabled list with a strained hamstring and rightfully so, but apparently there’s always money in the banana hernand, as Enrique clubbed his 6th dinger this year in only 161 PA’s bringing his wRC+ to an absurd 143. I’m excited to see what he does on a regular basis for the team. Oh and Justin Turner, troll MVP candidate hit his 14th dong bringing his wOBA to a hilarious .409.

Brett Anderson has a pretty underwhelming start again, his FIP is creeping up to the high 3’s, the strikeout rate has plummeted, the home runs and walks have shot up, and suddenly we have to HOPE Alex Wood figures it out and becomes a solid #3 starter in the playoffs because Anderson is slowly inching towards more innings in this year than his previous 4 seasons combined, I’ll go ahead and say that fatigue is certainly a factor in his underperformance lately.

The bullpen was exceptional today, Yimi Garcia pitched two scoreless frames to bring his ERA down to a solid 3.50 and didn’t walk anybody to lower his FIP to a nice 3.31, I’d like to see him used in higher leverage situations along with Pedro Baez going forward (also this should illustrate how little small sample size numbers in AAA matter to pitchers like him).

Anything can happen in 18.1 innings, huh?

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Yep a reliever with high velocity and two above average pitches could look like utter garbage, but then come back after a lengthy disabled list trip and look like a back end option. Funny how things work that way because no matter how much anybody hated the guy, Chris Hatcher is going to have to succeed for the Dodgers to go anywhere. Hatcher’s has given up a ton of runs, yeah but his seasonal stats are so fresh to where a single scoreless inning dropped his ERA a third of a run, it’s way too early to give up on him and seeing him succeed is a prospect that is very encouraging for the state of the bullpen.

The Dodgers hold a 2.5 game on the division.