Pitching cavalry to the rescue

Ross Stripling, Brock Stewart and Walker Buehler did not figure to be front line starters this season as the Dodgers set out to defend the National League championship.

Yet, here we are on the cusp of June and the Dodgers’ pitching fortunes now rest on guys who at best have been on the periphery the last few seasons.

Stripling and Stewart have bounced between Chavez Ravine and Oklahoma City the last few years and Buehler has emerged as the latest rookie stud. With Hyun Jin-Ryu, Kenta Maeda and Alex Wood starting to hit their strides and Clayton Kershaw getting closer to returning to the rotation, the Dodgers are closing in on having a settled pitching staff.

The bullpen, which has struggled during the first two months of the season, is also getting its footings.

Dave Roberts continues to experiment with different relievers to pitch the seventh and eighth innings but thankfully Kenley Jansen has regained his mojo in the closer role.

Now, let’s talk about the offense.

Yasiel Puig, his average hovering above .200, has found his power stroke in the last week or so and is once again flirting with being an offensive force. We will see. Matt Kemp has been a revelation, leading the club with a .331 average, getting timely hits and playing left field like he was a youngster.

Justin Turner’s return to the batting order has been a good jolt to the offense and Cody Bellinger and Yasmani Grandal have picked up the pace.

Dodgers bats still trending cold belong to Chris Taylor, Joc Pederson, Austin Barnes, Logan Forsythe and Kike Hernandez. Rookie Max Muncy is getting playing time at first base with Bellinger in center for Chris Taylor, now playing short with the season-ending injury to Corey Seager.

The Dodgers now trail Colorado by 4.5 games in the NL West with Arizona and San Francisco near the front of the pack trailing the Rockies.

In a season that once seemed lost, the Dodgers are only a modest winning streak away from regaining their swagger and first place in the NL West.

Hey, it could happen.

Dodgers show some signs of life

Well, maybe we shouldn’t be too quick to sign that death certificate.

The Dodgers, looking like their 2018 season was pretty much a wrap, pulled off a three-game sweep against the Washington Nationals over the weekend, shrinking their eight-game deficit to only five behind Arizona. While the Dodgers were stunning the Nats, the Mets were sweeping the D-Backs in New York.

Arizona is 1-9 in its last 10 games and suddenly the Rockies, Giants and Dodgers are eying the top spot in the NL West. Colorado is only a half-game off the pace and the Giants are only two games out. It’s still May, and the Dodgers could get back into this thing.

Ross Stripling, Alex Wood and Kenta Maeda pitched well over the weekend and the LA bullpen, generous of late, teamed up to pitch a nine-inning combined gem when Rich Hill’s sensitive fingers got another blister. Hill left after two pitches, so Dave Roberts made it a bullpen game. The Dodgers won that one and have now won four in a row after salvaging the final game of the series against the Marlins.

Hill is on the 10-day DL but the Dodgers are hoping Clayton Kershaw will return to the mound in the short term and discover his fastball again.

Justin Turner provided a lift to the team with his return to the lineup and he was raking like he never left. Cody Bellinger, Yasiel Puig, Yasmani Grandal, Kike Hernandez and rookie Max Muncy hit dingers against the vaunted Washington pitching staff and Matt Kemp kept up his torrid hitting.

When you face Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg on the same weekend and still come away with a sweep you know the baseball gods are smiling on you.

The Dodgers open a critical homestand against the Rockies tonight in Chavez Ravine as LA tries to keep the winning trend rolling.

Who knows, we may need to put that wake on hold.

The demise of the Los Angeles Dodgers

Hardly six months after playing in the seventh game of the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers have fallen on hard times.

The DL is as crowded as the waiting room at the free clinic and players that had breakout years in 2017 are having breakdown years in 2018.

All-star shortstop Corey Seager is out for the year with a bum elbow, ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw is out with a sore biceps muscle and hasn’t seen his fastball lately, saddled with a 1-4 record.

Cody Bellinger, last year’s Rookie of the Year, is struggling through a sophomore slump and the once-vaunted bullpen has disintegrated before our eyes. Justin Turner played his first game of the season this week after breaking his wrist in spring training. Logan Forsythe was on the DL as well, nursing a bad shoulder.

Things are bad.

Whispers have started about Dave Roberts’ job.

Baseball writers are calling the Dodgers the biggest bust of the year, the team with the highest payroll and nothing to show for it.

Arizona has laid claim to the National League West and the Dodgers are floating near the bottom of the division standings with the likes of the San Diego Padres. LA is 8.5 games out of first place with no indications things will improve anytime soon.

Not that there haven’t been a few bright spots.

Matt Kemp, once thought to be trade bait, is hitting north of .300 and is playing an inspired left field. Rookie Walker Buehler is a flame-thrower, hitting the gun in the mid to upper 90s and showing flashes of brilliance. Yasmani Grandal is getting most starts behind the plate because he started with a hot bat. Grandal has cooled to a .270 clip but remains a better option than Austin Barnes, struggling at .222.

Then there’s the kids. Alex Verdugo had a long cup of coffee and showed he will hit in the bigs. Kyle Farmer and Max Muncy got a little playing time as well, and showed they are not far away from playing in the Show every day.

But guys like Chris Taylor (.234), Joc Pederson (.237), Yasiel Puig (.210), Kike Hernandez (.216) and Chase Utley (.250) are not putting it all together.

Starting pitching has not been any better. Hyun-Jin Ryu has been a bright spot at 3-0 with a 2.12 ERA and Buehler is 2-1 with a 1.64 ERA. Kershaw, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda and Alex Wood have been disappointing.

The big controversy in Los Angeles the last few years has been how many people couldn’t catch the Dodgers on television because a dispute with the cable company.

That issue may die down this year.

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.