Dodgers: Four takeaways from the past losing road trip

The Club May Have Finally Figured Out Left-Handed Pitching

According to Fangraphs, the Dodgers have improved their hitting against left-handed pitching during the first half of May! That’s pretty encouraging signs for a team that had opposing teams switch around their pitching rotation to throw more left-handers against LA.

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But all signs are trending up for this narrative that stuck with the team all last season and for the first month of this season. The club is 5-1 in their last six games when a lefty starts for the opposing team. The team could have very well been 6-0 if it wasn’t for a loss against Ty Blach on Tuesday night.

But the team is collectively hitting .264/.353/.439 against lefties during the Month of May. I know, it’s not world beating numbers, but it’s improvement, and that’s all we can ask for.

Also encouraging are the four home runs and 23 runs scored off southpaws. Leading the way for the club is surprisingly left-hander Cody Bellinger, who is hitting .421 with one home run and 8 RBI in 19 at-bats against lefties. Justin Turner is second in left-handed hitting production with a .333 average and 3 RBI in 22 plate appearances.

There’s reason for optimism with the club now that this narrative seems to be fading away. The month of May has shown flashes of dominance for the Dodgers but has also shown inconsistencies with scoring runs.

Next: Dodgers Ideal Starting 5 Pitchers

It’s reasonable to feel a lot better about the club as to where they’re at during the middle of May than when they started off slow in April. The team is getting healthy and once the lineup is back to full force that’s when we can truly evaluate the team. But even for now, with injuries and all the playing time questions, the Dodgers still look poised to make a deep run in October.