Sweep of San Diego helps right LA ship

Nothing like a three-game sweep to lift a team's spirits.

The Dodgers pounded the Padres 13-4 last night to complete a three-game sweep of San Diego and record LA's fourth straight win.

The brooming of San Diego came with a roar as the Dodgers outscored the Padres 30-10 over the three-game set and evoked memories of last year's amazing run to the World Series.

The Dodgers will see if they can keep the bats warm this weekend when they host the Washington Nationals and face off against the likes of Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, two of the top hurlers in the league. Scoring against Washington figures to be a little tougher.

LA's offense has been ignited by Yasmani Grandal (.352), Matt Kemp (.347), Chase Utley (.343) and Cody Bellinger (.304). Corey Seager is hitting at .254 but is chopping at a .310 clip over his last seven games.

Grandal came into the season battling for playing time with Austin Barnes but has forced Dave Roberts to keep him in the lineup with a torrid start. Kemp, who the Dodgers tried to move after acquiring him from Atlanta, has forced the Dodgers to keep Andrew Toles in the minors and Joc Pederson on the bench.

Kemp was once an MVP candidate and is flashing signs of his early glory days with the Dodgers. He has solidified his position in left field and in the heart of the batting order.

Dodgers looking up at rest of NL West

Fourteen games into a 162-game season is a relatively small sampling.

But it's still a little unnerving that the Dodgers, reigning National League champions and five consecutive times NL West Division champs, are in last place in the division at 5-9 going into tonight's game in San Diego.

Twelve of the first 14 games have been against divison rivals San Francisco.and Arizona. The Dodgers have split with the Giants but the Diamondbacks had rattled off five straight over the Dodgers before Clayton Kershaw stopped the bleeding yesterday with a seven-inning, two-hit performance in a 7-2 victory.

Kershaw struck out 12 while Arizona's Zack Godley struggled with control, walking six over four innings. Kershaw relied heavily on his slider as an out pitch and was putting up a string of zeroes until Paul Goldschmidt took him deep.

Chris Taylor sparked the offense with a homer, double and three RBI and Yasiel Puig contributed with a two-run single to pace the Dodgers.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak and 11-game regular season skid against Arizona.

Of course, sandwiched in that regular season slump against Arizona was a three-game sweep by the Dodgers in the 2017 NLCS.

LA's path back to the World Series gets more difficult as the days go by. Arizona and Colorado are 11-4 and 9-8 respectively while the Padres, Giants and Dodgers are about five games off the early pace.

On the injury front, Logan Forsythe joined Justin Turner on the DL with shoulder inflammation, which means Chase Utley, Kike Hernandez and Kyle Farmer figure to get more playing time.

Dodgers still a little wobbly out of the gate

The Dodgers have stumbled out of the gate to start the 2018 season, splitting six meetings against the Giants, getting swept in a three-game set with Arizona and winning the first game of a two-game series against Oakland last night.

The Dodgers are 4-6 through the first 10 games while the Diamondbacks have jumped out to an 8-3 mark. 

On the mound, Clayton Kershaw is winless through three starts despite posting a 1.89 ERA. Closer Kenley Jansen has a 7.71 ERA in 4.2 innings of work but has started pitching to form the last few games, getting a pair of saves.

The starting rotation and the bullpen look solid, giving the Dodgers a strong crew working the mound. Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Alex Wood have thrown well, giving Dave Roberts a solid five-man rotation.

Where the Dodgers are still working out the kinks is with the bats, where Chris Taylor, Yasiel Puig and Corey Seager are barely scrapping above the Mendoza line. Justin Turner is still on the DL with a broken wrist but the recycled Matt Kemp (.308), Chase Utley (.300), Cody Bellinger (.297) and Yasmani Grandal (.321) are starting to heat up on offense.

Taylor and Seager hit back-to-back dingers to open the game against Oakland last night and Kemp went yard for his first homer of the year in a Dodgers 4-0 win. 

Ryu tossed six innings of one-hit, shutout ball to get the win last night with Tony Cingrani, Ross Stripling and Jansen preserving the shutout.

Getting back to the World Series is not going to be easy. Arizona and San Francisco have upgraded to keep the Dodgers from winning a sixth straight division title.

Dodger pitchers come strong out of the gate

The first weekend of the 2018 season is in the books and if this opening performance against the Giants is any indication, the Dodgers will once again have a stellar pitching staff.

L.A. lost the first two games of the series by 1-0 scores as San Francisco's Joe Panik stunned the Dodgers on back-to-back outings.

But the silver lining in those two losses was the fact that Clayton Kershaw and Alex Wood gave up only one run between them, with Kenley Jansen giving up the other.

The Dodgers earned a series split with a 5-0 win on Saturday and a 9-0 pummeling of San Francisco
on Sunday as Kenta Maeda pitched five innings of shutout ball and Rich Hill tossed six innings of shutout ball to notch a pair of wins.

Other than Jansen's solo HR to Panik, the Dodger bullpen pitched 10 innings of shutout ball. Scott Alexander, Pedro Baez, JT Chargois, Tony Cingrani, Josh Fields, Wilmer Font and Ross Stripling posted nothing but zeros.

Last night, Yasiel Puig had three hits and is looking solid and Cody Bellinger broke out with an opposite field dinger as the Dodgers piled on the Giants. San Francisco has a new look with Andrew McCutcheon in right and Evan Longoria at third and should be formidable when Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardziga return from injuries.

It's only four games, but I like our pitching and scoring 14 runs in two games after being shutout twice to start the season. Hopefully, Justin Turner's broken wrist will not keep him out of the lineup too long.