Dodgers try for 4th straight win vs. Twins

The Dodgers try to win their fourth straight game on Tuesday night, continuing their interleague series against the Twins at Dodger Stadium.

Monday night’s game was a back-and-forth battle that Cody Bellinger won with a three-run home run in the eighth inning, erasing a one-run deficit. It marked consecutive games with a home run for Bellinger, the first time he did that since June 19-20.

Bellinger now has 28 home runs on the season, just seven shy of Mike PIazza’s franchise rookie record. He’s also 12-for-37 (.324) since the All-Star break with three home runs and five walks in 12 games.

On Monday night, Bellinger passed Adrian Gonzalez in defensive innings at first base in 2017, 379⅔ to 373. Bellinger also leads the club in defensive innings in left field (284⅓), almost 30 more than Chris Taylor (254⅔). It means that now, on the Dodgers’ Baseball-Reference page, Bellinger is listed as the regular first baseman with Taylor the left fielder.

Taylor has been hotter than anybody since the All-Star break, and continued it with three more hits on Monday, including scoring on Bellinger’s game-deciding home run. Taylor has six multi-hit games in his last seven, and since the break is 21-for-40 (.525) with eight extra-base hits in 10 games.

Kenta Maeda starts for the Dodgers on Tuesday. He has entered into the incentives portion of his contract for this season, earning a $1 million bonus for making his 15th start last week. His next bonus is $250,000 for reaching 90 innings on the season. He’s currently at 83, so to earn that tonight Maeda would need to last at least seven innings for a fourth time in 2017.

Game info

Time: 7:10 p.m. PT

TV: SportsNet LA