The Dodgers shut out the Los Angeles Angels twice, won two of three games against the visiting Houston Astros and nearly went undefeated in five games last week.
It was quite the turnaround.
The Dodgers have developed a bad habit this season of blowing leads, ruining quality starts and destroying the confidence of their best pitching prospects.
There was some of that going on in the games against the Angels and the Astros. But the Dodgers came up with some clutch hits, timely offense, and even some much-needed bullpen help to go 4-1 last week.
But the most important play of the weekend was the balk that made Astros reliever Ryne Stanek go ballistic.
The Dodgers were down 7-3 against the Astros in Saturday’s game. They had a 3-0 lead earlier, but it turned into one of those games that the Dodgers like to lose.
However, the Dodgers scored two runs in the seventh inning to cut the lead in half and scored three runs in the eighth inning to take the lead.
Perhaps these Dodgers are showing signs of life after all.
James Outman hit an RBI double in the eighth inning to tie the score. It was a ground-rule double when the ball got stuck in the fencing in the right field wall. But it was Stanek’s balk that gave the Dodgers the lead.
When the inning ended, Stanek started yelling at anyone in an umpire uniform. He was thrown out of the game. Astros manager Dusty Baker was thrown out of the game. The Astros were in disarray, and the Dodger fans loved every second of it.
It gave the Dodgers a four-game winning streak and put them in position to go undefeated for the week.
Clayton Kershaw started the winning trend by tossing seven shutout innings against the Angels in Anaheim on Tuesday. He won his ninth game and lowered his ERA to 2.72.
“I just don't see a better competitor out there than Clayton Kershaw,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the Associated Press after Tuesday’s game. “Right now, he's the only one standing from (the rotation on) opening day. For him to realize that, but not put any added pressure on yourself, it's a skill.”
The Dodgers followed Kershaw’s gem with a bullpen game. Brusdar Graterol opened, pitched two innings, and seven relievers held the Angels scoreless. The Angels were shut out only once in their first 74 games and the Dodgers did it to them twice in two days.
To make it even more impressive, the Dodgers beat Shohei Ohtani in the game on Wednesday.
That set up a weekend series against the Astros.
Rookie Emmet Sheehan started the first game of the series and won the first game of his career. He was the hard-luck pitcher in his first start against the San Francisco Giants last week. He was pulled after six innings of no-hit baseball and leading 4-0 only to see the Dodgers blow the lead and lose 6-5 in extra innings.
It was a much different story in Friday’s game against the Astros.
Sheehan won a nail-biter, 3-2, and benefited from fellow rookie Michael Busch’s RBI double in the fourth inning that gave the Dodgers the lead.
Even though the Dodgers ended the week with a lone loss, they showed plenty of fight. Trailing 4-1 inm Sunday's game, the Dodgers scored three runs in the eighth inning, two on a home run by Will Smith, and tied the score. The game went into extra innings and the Dodgers lost 6-5 in 11 innings. But they made the Astros earn every run.
Dodgers starting pitching power rankings:
- Clayton Kershaw
- Emmet Sheehan
- Brusdar Graterol
- Tony Gonsolin
- Bobby Miller
The Dodgers (43-34), still in third place in the National League West standings, head to Colorado to start a three-game series with the Rockies on Tuesday. The Rockies lost to the Angeles, 25-1, on Saturday, but also won two of three games against the Angels over the weekend. The Dodgers travel to Kansas City for a weekend series against the Royals starting on Friday.
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