Dodgers fatten up on bad Pirates, Rangers teams

There’s nothing like a couple of series against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers to put a team back on the right course.

Or in the case of the Dodgers, to put a team on a path to the playoffs.

The wayward Dodgers swept the lowly Pirates to start the week. It was a good omen for the Dodgers when, in the opening game on Tuesday, Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a home run for the Pirates, but missed stepping on first base and was called out instead. The Dodgers went on to win the game, 5-3, and Walker Buehler improved to 5-0. It started a four-game winning streak and moved the Dodgers into second place in the National League West standings.

Buehler capped the week by improving to 6-0 with a 5-3 Dodgers win over the Rangers on Sunday. He pitched six shutout innings and lowered his ERA to 2.38.

It didn’t hurt that the San Diego Padres went into a bit of a funk either. They are 2-6 in their last eight games and snapped a four-game losing streak on Sunday by beating the New York Mets, 7-3.

The Dodgers are feasting on bad teams. They scored 13 runs in three games against the Pirates. The Dodgers nearly matched that offensive output in the first game against the Rangers, a 12-1 win on Friday night.

But it wasn’t all good news for the Dodgers last week. Max Muncy was put on the 10-day injured list with an oblique strain. He leads the Dodgers with 14 home runs and has 33 RBIs in 60 games. He joins Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Dustin May, AJ Pollock, Gavin Lux and Zach McKinstry who have spent time on the injured list.

Ouch!

Perhaps the more disturbing development of the past week is Trevor Bauer’s on-going battle with the MLB Commissioner’s office.

He is all but daring the commissioner to suspend him for putting foreign substances on the ball. He is one of many pitchers in MLB who is suspected of doctoring baseballs to increase spin rate.

The batting averages in baseball are at record lows. The number of no-hitters are approaching record highs. It is embarrassingly apparent that pitchers have a significant advantage over hitters this season, have had the upper hand for a few seasons now, and no one wants to reveal the reasons why that might be happening. 

Here's a hint: The pitchers are cheating.

But how does the commissioner punish all the pitchers who are suspected of cheating? It’s not like every pitching staff can have three or four pitchers sitting out games because they are suspended for cheating.

No, the commissioner will probably have to make examples out of some pitchers. Most likely middle of the rotation guys, not All Stars or former Cy Young Award winners, except for Bauer.

He might be the one star who feels the wrath of the commissioner and will have to sit out some games for threatening the integrity of the game, or some other such nonsense.

The real question is: Will he miss enough games to cost the Dodgers a playoff spot?

Dodger fans don’t want to see that. More importantly, the commissioner’s office doesn’t want to see that.

But at some point, pitchers are going to face the consequences for cheating in one way or another. It’s a matter of when and for how long.

Dodgers starting pitchers power rankings:

1. Walker Buehler
2. Julio Urias
3. Clayton Kershaw
4. Tony Gonsolin
5. Trevor Bauer

The competition gets a little tougher for the Dodgers (39-26) next week. They start a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodgers Stadium on Monday and hit the road for a weekend series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.