PITTSBURGH — The Dodgers are the only team averaging five runs per game in baseball’s suppressed offensive environment – 5.21 after Tuesday’s 11-1 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates – and have scored 50 while winning seven of their past eight games.
And they’re doing this with one arm tied behind their backs?
“It’s pretty amazing,” Freddie Freeman said during the weekend in Chicago, the latest Dodger to point out how their lineup has yet to hit on all cylinders. “Twenty-six games in, that we’re not completely clicking and we’re 19-7.”
Update the record to 20-8 after one of those players who has not been clicking, Justin Turner, led the extra-base buffet against the Pirates by driving in four runs with three doubles.
The Dodgers had 10 extra-base hits in Tuesday’s win (short of the franchise record, 13) including eight doubles (tying the Los Angeles franchise record).
“I think a lot of what you saw tonight is going to happen,” Trea Turner said when asked what a Dodger lineup “completely clicking” might look like. “I think Freddie talked about it a few days ago. I don’t know exactly what he said, but I feel like a lot of what he said is right. I don’t feel like I’ve been going great. JT and Munce obviously feel they can do better – you saw that from them tonight too.
“I just think, up and down, there’s people that feel like there’s a lot more in the tank. … I think nights like tonight are going to happen a lot more often when we get going.”
They’ve already happened more often than the Dodgers probably realize. They’ve already had nine games with seven or more runs, six innings when they’ve scored five runs or more and 17 when they scored three runs or more.
“I think that we’re playing good baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But you can ask Justin Turner, you can ask Max Muncy, you can ask Chris Taylor, you can ask Will Smith – there’s a lot of guys up and down our lineup that say ‘I’m not even close to where I need to be right now.’ So yeah, I don’t think we’re hitting on all cylinders.”
The parade of extra-base hits began in the first inning when Freeman, Trea Turner and Justin Turner each doubled, producing two runs. The five-run third inning featured three more doubles. Justin Turner and Austin Barnes each drove in two runs with theirs. Another run scored on an RBI single by Edwin Rios.
The Dodgers added some diversity in the four-run seventh, adding a triple by Muncy (when Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds came up empty on a diving attempt) and a towering two-run home run by Rios.
Justin Turner had four of the Dodgers’ 15 hits in the game, giving his batting average a much-needed early-season bump from .168 when the night started to .200 when it ended.
“I’ve done it before. I’ve done it a lot actually, had slow Aprils,” Justin Turner said. “I think what was different about this April was, there was a lot of out-of-character at-bats. A lot of chasing, a lot of weak contact. I know obviously I wasn’t getting results. But even if I was getting hits that way, I know it’s not sustainable. So I’ve just been trying to get back in the zone, swinging at good pitches and hitting balls hard. When you hit balls hard, you got a better chance at getting hits.”
One facet of the team that has definitely been clicking – the pitching – had another outstanding night, holding the Pirates to four hits.
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Tony Gonsolin went the first five innings, holding the Pirates scoreless on one hit. He is 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA after six starts – but he keeps making things difficult for himself with 13 walks in 27 innings, leading to high pitch counts (almost 16½ per inning).
“The skillset, the stuff was there to get major-league hitters out,” Roberts said after pulling Gonsolin after 84 pitches in those five innings. “But, you know, when he’s not commanding the fastball and working behind hitters, the pitch count gets elevated. He still managed his way through it, which is a good thing.”
He got some help with that. Gonsolin walked the first batter he faced (one of four in the first three innings) and gave up a double to Reynolds. But Mookie Betts – the only player in the Dodgers’ starting lineup held hitless — cut off the Pirates’ best scoring chance against Gonsolin when he threw out Ben Gamel at home after Gamel tagged at third and tried to score on a fly ball to Betts.
“That was great,” Gonsolin said of Betts’ play. “I started with that leadoff walk then Reynolds got that hit. Not ideal after we score a couple runs (in the top of the first). Getting that fly out and Mookie coming up with that big throw … it’s nice to have a guy like that who can make those kind of plays.”