The Dodger reached the 100-game mark of the season with a 67-33 record. Before the week was over, the Dodgers improved to 68-33 and won three of four games against the Rockies in Colorado.
The Dodgers continue to impress, going 21-5 in July and have a 12-game lead over those pesky San Diego Padres in the National League West standings.
The starting pitching has been strong. Tony Gonsolin and Tyler Anderson are tops in the National League in wins and ERA.
Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman are the top two hitters in the major leagues. Freeman had three hits on Sunday against the Rockies and leads the majors with 128 hits. Turner singled in the first inning and extended his hitting streak to 18 games. He is one hit behind Freeman, with 127, for second place in the majors.
But the most surprising contribution of the weekend came from rookie James Outman, the unfortunately named outfielder who had one of the most impressive debuts in major league history.
Outman had three hits and drove in three runs in Sunday’s 7-3 win over the Rockies on Sunday.
He is the first Dodger with three hits and three RBIs in his first game.
He homered in his first at-bat, on his first pitch, and became the fourth Dodger to do that since the team moved to Los Angeles.
He joined Jose Offerman, Gary Ingram and Keibert Ruiz as the other Los Angeles Dodgers to homer in their first major league at-bat.
The Dodgers are finding production from all sorts of unexpected places.
Yet, the Dodgers are looking to make more additions.
Trade talk is circulating around Washington Nationals outfielder and All Star Juan Soto. The Dodgers are reported to be one of three teams still in the hunt for Soto. The San Diego Padres are one of the other teams looking to trade for Soto.
As great a player as Soto is, the Dodgers don’t need him.
They probably don’t need to make any trades.
But the Dodgers refused to stand pat and made a deal for some bullpen help.
They acquired reliever Chris Martin from the Chicago Cubs for Zack McKinstry. Martin is nothing really special. He is 1-0 with a 4.31 ERA and should be a reliable addition to the bullpen. But he does have one extraordinary talent: He doesn’t walk anybody.
He has only walked four batters all season. That is in 31 ⅓ innings. He has 40 strikeouts to go with those four walks. There are not many free passes coming from Martin.
In addition to Martin, the Dodgers have a few fresh arms waiting in the wings to join the team.
Blake Treinen is close to returning to the bullpen. Walker Buehler and Dustin May are expected to return before the end of the season. And Andrew Heaney, with his miniscule 0.47 ERA, is already back in the rotation and scheduled to start Monday against the San Francisco Giants.
Plus the Dodgers are rolling along without two of their best hitters, Chris Taylor and Justin Turner.
The Dodgers have reinforcements coming. And it’s not like they are struggling without some of their best players.
Dodger starter power rankings:
- Tyler Anderson
- Tony Gonsolin
- Julio Urias
- Clayton Kershaw
- Mitch White
The Dodgers (68-33) head to San Francisco to start a four-game series with the Giants on Monday and finish the week with a three-game series against the San Diego Padres at home on Friday.
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