Dodgers: What a successful series with San Diego looks like

Handling the San Diego Sluggers

Manny Machado, Hunter Renfroe, Wil Myers. All are capable of blasting a home run off of the Western Metal building in left field at Petco Park. All also have been ice cold at times this season.

Luckily for the Dodgers, this is one of those stretches.

Machado’s last 14 games have netted him just 2 doubles, 1 home run, and 6 walks. Renfroe’s two August home runs are the fewest he’s totaled for any full month this season. Myers has 13 strikeouts in his last 10 games.

Long story short, the guys the Dodgers should be worried about following the righty-Yankee power surge are less than threatening at the moment. But it doesn’t take much to set any of this trio off, especially Machado and Renfroe.

The stocky outfielder has two 9-homer months under his belt this season, with 31 on the year, while Machado had a June for the ages, in which 11 of his 33 hits left the yard. So the Dodgers need to be careful, especially after allowing home runs in three straight games to Aaron Judge, who had two home runs in August coming into Dodger Stadium last Friday.

If the Dodgers are to limit the home run output of these three, they’ll need their righties, who did not pitch against the Yankees. Buehler, Maeda, and May all will need to keep their fastballs above the belt and their curves below a set of buckled knees in order to avoid any damage.

Renfroe actually has very similar numbers to Sanchez, in terms of season-long home run output (31 for Renfroe, 29 for Sanchez), the number of fastballs they see (46.8% vs. 46.7%), their HR/FB rates (25.0% vs. 25.7%), and swinging strike rates (13.2% vs 13.4%). If the Dodgers can limit him, which they’ve struggled to do before, that would be a step in the right direction.

And while Judge and Machado are (inconveniently) less similar than Renfroe and Sanchez, both righties have long swings and a lot of power potential, and shutting down Machado would be akin to stopping any of the big sluggers on the major playoff contenders in both leagues.

MVP! MVP! MV-Please Stop Striking Out!

What happened to Cody Bellinger? That’s what Dodger fans found themselves asking at the conclusion of the 2–1 series loss to the Yankees that culminated on Sunday.

What happened to our MVP?

For starters, on the obvious end of the spectrum, Belli-Bomb didn’t hit any Belli-Bombs. Instead, he struck out. A ton.

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The Yankees punched out the NL-MVP hopeful 6 times over the course of the series, with 5 of the 6 coming in games started by lefties in James Paxton and CC Sabathia.

In the upcoming series with the Pad Squad, the only lefty on the docket would be Eric Lauer, though he does not have the strikeout numbers of even Sabathia, let alone Paxton. But out of the bullpen, lefty killer Matt Strahm is likely to make at least one appearance against Bellinger.

Bellinger needs to answer the call against both Lauer and Strahm, and any other lefty staring him down from 60 feet away.

He also needs to pop a home run, something he hasn’t done since before interleague play began on August 18.

Bellinger strikes out, its part of his best and worst versions, as we’ve seen last season and this season. He’ll rack up multi-strikeout games more often than multi-homer games. That’s okay. As long as he gets back in the groove, even with just a few walks and a few ringing doubles.

Bellinger’s 8 walks in August would be a season-low for any full month, as he has been walking about three times for every four punchouts this season. That hasn’t been the case in his 20-strikeout-August though, something he could fix against the Padres this week.