Dodgers 5 Padres 1- Padres DefLOLense

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Thanks Padres defense!

The Padres twitter account tweeted this when the Dodgers scored the crucial 3rd 4th and 5th runs in Sunday’s win

It was… technically correct but heavily aided by Padres reliever, Nick Vincent totally throwing the ball away in a bases loaded situation. At that point, the game was a close 2-1 affair like so many the Dodgers have played in over the past week, but that effectively ended the game, the magic number is 19 time to analyze!

The Dodgers bullpen looks like a coherent unit when they’re not using horribad pitchers like Jim Johnson (who should be DFA’d) or Joel Peralta. Pedro Baez and Yimi Garcia look like they’re a potential solution to the late inning woes, and while they (along with every other reliever sans Kenley) for whatever reason, become, their worst version of themselves in high leverage situations, but they have to trust good pitchers, because that’s better than trusting bad pitchers. Also Luis Avilan is putting together a pretty average season, and with the pitchers in this bullpen, that’s huge.

Brett Anderson had a very shaky outing, he only gave up 1 run but only went 5.2 innings, and walked 4. It should have been way worse than it was, but thankfully it wasn’t. Brett’s FIP is right up there at 3.94 and while FIP underrates ground ball pitchers It seems like he’s running out of gas, I hope Bolsinger and Latos remain in the rotation if only to spot him once.

AJ Ellis’ wRC+ is up to 117 after 2 hits today, he needs to be the primary catcher down the stretch if only to spot Yasmani Grandal for a good while, cause Yas looks lost and Barnes is a perfectly acceptable battery right now until Grandal gets fully healthy.

Best NRI signee ever Justin Turner‘s wRC+ is back up to 138 and he looked fantastic in his return to 2b, i’d like to see Corey Seager continue to get some reps at 3b and Turner to continue to play second because it looks like it could work.

Overall the Dodgers are playing their best baseball of the season right now and this is not a bad time for a “42-8 stretch” hue hue, the magic number is only 19, so clinching could be in order shortly after winning 11 of their last 13.