The Dodgers climbed into a first-place tie with those annoying Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West standings after going 4-3 last week and taking three of four games against the Chicago Cubs over the weekend.
The Dodgers are moving in the right direction. Two Dodgers are making particularly impressive moves.
James Outman has emerged as the early favorite for rookie of the year.
Max Muncy is in the early season discussion for MVP.
Outman leads National League rookies in almost every offensive category. He is batting .311, the highest batting average on the Dodgers, and has seven home runs. His 19 RBIs not only lead all National League rookies, it is fifth in the National League.
He put on a show against the Cubs in Chicago with four home runs and nine RBIs in four games. He hit .320 in the series and is batting .392 in his last seven games.
Muncy leads the National League in home runs with 11 and is third in the league in RBIs with 21. He is also coming off an impressive weekend in Chicago, with four home runs and six RBIs.
Over the past seven games, Muncy is batting .389 with five home runs with five home runs and seven RBIs.
No team is running away in the National League West. The Dodgers are only one game over .500 at 12-11 and 5-5 in the last 10 games. The most telling stat for the Dodgers after the first 23 games is they have a plus-19 run differential. The other four teams in the National League West all have negative run differentials.
Outman and Muncy are two of the big reasons for the early offensive surge.
Clayton Kershaw has quietly emerged as one of the top pitchers in the National League. It’s hard for a three-time Cy Young Award winner to fly under the radar, but Kershaw is doing just that.
He has four wins, the most in the National League and 32 strikeouts, the fifth most in the league. He also leads the National League in quality starts, meaning the Dodgers are never out of a game when he starts.
In another move in the right direction, the Dodgers might have found their next starting shortstop in right field.
Mookie Betts made his first start at shortstop on Sunday against the Cubs. He hit a home run and drove in four runs in a 7-3 win. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Betts will start at shortstop against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday, maybe the whole series.
"I've been doing the multiple position thing my whole life,” Betts told the Associated Press. "It doesn't really matter to me. I just go out and play and want to win.”
One more dose of good news for the Dodgers, Tony Gonsolin is expected to make his first start of the season on the mound against the Pirates on Wednesday.
It took a little while but it looks like it’s starting to come together for the Dodgers.
Dodger starting pitching power rankings:
- Clayton Kershaw
- Dustin May
- Noah Syndergaard
- Julio Urias
- Michael Grove
The Dodgers start a three-game series against the upstart Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday. The Pirates are in first place in the National League Central standings and have won seven games in a row. The Pirates also give the Dodgers fits, especially in recent years. The Dodgers end the week against the Cardinals in St. Louis.
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