Dodgers Way Quick Hits: The Final Road Trip Begins

The Dodgers will begin their final road trip of the regular season today after destroying the Padres 14-0 yesterday afternoon.

There was only one football game played in Los Angeles yesterday but by the score of the Dodgers game you would think the Dodgers were a football team as well.  The Dodgers dominated the Padres by a football score of 14-0 to win their final home series of the regular season and setup the final week of the season with a 1.5 game lead.

The Dodgers will now head to Arizona where they will meet the Diamondbacks who are fresh off being officially eliminated from playoff contention by the Rockies.  The Dodgers cannot take the Dbacks lightly as they may be out for revenge after Matt Kemp helped wreck the Diamondbacks’ playoff hopes.

The Dodgers will have their two best pitchers going this series with Clayton Kershaw starting tonight and then Walker Buehler getting the start tomorrow.  The Dodgers will be facing Robbie Ray and Zack Greinke so the Dodger offense will be tested this series.  If the Dodgers can scrape off a few runs against Ray and Greinke they should once again have their way with a struggling Arizona bullpen.

After three games in the desert, the Dodgers will head north to finish the season with the San Francisco Giants.  While the Giants have been eliminated like the Dbacks, they too will still have plenty of motivation to potentially knock their arch rival out of playoff contention.  The Dodgers can’t take the Dbacks or Giants lightly or they could end up watching the playoffs from their couches.

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• Julio Urias pitched a very encouraging inning yesterday for the Dodgers.  Not only did Urias record a 1-2-3 inning, he also hit 97 miles per hour on the last pitch he threw.  While Urias is unlikely to be on the playoff roster, he has shown some encouraging signs that he will be a big time contributor next season.
• Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched a stellar game on Sunday tossing six shutout innings while striking out eight Padre batters and walking none.  Ryu now has a 2.00 ERA for the season, and a 1.29 ERA at Dodger Stadium.  Ryu should be a lock for the postseason rotation should the Dodger get there and it would be wise for the Dodgers to give him a home start.
• Just as the media was starting to talk about Manny Machado slumping, he has gone 3-7 in the past two games with two home runs and five runs batted in.  If Machado is catching fire the Dodgers couldn’t have asked for a better time as they try to wrap up their playoff berth and enter the playoffs on a hot streak.

• Matt Kemp turned thirty-four years old on Sunday and he also homered to record the 1,000th RBI of his big league career.  Kemp has been returning to form lately as well so the Dodgers could be looking at three hot hitters in Joc Pederson, Manny Machado, and Matt Kemp as they attempt to clinch and enter the playoffs.