Dodgers Week 21: Home run records, but breaking even

The Dodgers put on a power display last week that included a few major league records, but somehow managed just a .500 record on the road against the Marlins and Braves.

It’s hard to muster much excitement over home run records when long balls these days are more prevalent than hard candy at your grandmother’s house. But even in a juiced-ball environment the Dodgers have managed to stand out, easily pacing the National League in home runs this season.

The Dodgers set major league records last week for most consecutive games with four or more home runs (five; the old record was three), most home runs in a five-game span (22), and most home runs in a six-game span (24, tied).

Individual milestones were reached, too, with Cody Bellinger on Thursday becoming the eighth different Dodger to hit 40 home runs in a season, and Max Muncy on Friday hitting his 30th, the first Dodger with back-to-back 30-homer seasons since Shawn Green in 2001-02.

Despite out-homering their opponents 21-4 during the week, the Dodgers lost three times. Those last three home runs over the weekend were killers, coincidentally all in the sixth inning: back-to-back shots from Josh Donaldson and Adam Duvall to break a tie against the usually stingy Hyun-jin Ryu on Saturday, then a grand slam by the career .238/.292/.290-hitting Rafael Ortega spoiled Dustin May’s relief debut on Sunday.

Los Angeles ended the week up 18½ games over San Francisco in the National League West, with a magic number of 19 to clinch a seventh-straight division.

Batter of the week

Justin Turner ended last week hot with a two-homer Sunday, and continued it into this week, hitting .478 (11-for-23) with three home runs and four walks. Turner had 10 home runs in 82 games before the All-Star break this season, and has 12 homers in 34 games since.

Honorable mention goes to Will Smith, who like Turner hit three home runs and walked four times, and also led the team with seven runs scored. Smith had a week worthy of this award, but lost out on volume to Turner, who did what Smith did plus another 6-for-10 on top of that.

Pitcher of the week

Clayton Kershaw allowed only two singles in dominating the Marlins on Wednesday, striking out 10 in seven scoreless innings.

Week 21 results

3-3 record
45 runs scored (7.50 per game)
27 runs allowed (4.50 per game)
.718 pythagorean record

Season to date

82-44 record
693 runs scored (5.50 per game)
483 runs allowed (3.83 per game)
.659 pythagorean record (83-43)

Miscellany

Not messing around: Clayton Kershaw had the good stuff going on Wednesday against the Marlins, striking out his first seven batters faced. That set a new Dodgers record to start a game, one more than Andy Messersmith on May 28, 1973. Kershaw was one shy of the major league record to start a game, but saw the streak end with a Lewis Brinson ground out on an 0-2 pitch.

Kershaw struck out eight of his first nine batters on Wednesday, just three weeks after striking out seven of his first nine Marlins through three perfect innings in Los Angeles. Both starts against Miami finished with 10 strikeouts, the one on Wednesday through seven scoreless frames. Through June, Kershaw had a 22.7% strikeout rate in 14 starts. Since then he’s at 33.5% in his last seven starts and a 1.40 ERA in that time.

More consecutive Ks: Kershaw wasn’t the only Dodgers pitcher with seven straight strikeouts last week. Kenta Maeda joined the fray, though his streak wasn’t to start the game on Friday in Atlanta. Maeda before his whiffing spree had a terrible second inning, then followed the streak by allowing a single and a walk, the latter his fourth of the night to tie a season high. Maeda had the odd combination of ineffectiveness and missing bats, authoring just the fifth-ever Dodgers start with at least nine strikeouts while unable to finish the fifth inning.

Double your pleasure: A.J. Pollock had three at-bats against the Marlins on Tuesday, and hit three doubles. That matches the franchise record, done several times (Pollock’s was the 57th instance dating back to 1908), the last by Justin Turner on Aug. 14, 2018.

Dinger machines: Sure there were a lot of doubles on Tuesday in Miami, but the Dodgers also hit six home runs, the most by any team in a game at Marlins Park, which opened in 2012. The Dodgers on Monday hit six doubles and a triple to go with those home runs, the 13 extra-base hits matching a franchise mark set in the 4+1 Game in 2006. That game 13 years ago lasted 10 innings. The 14 home runs against the Marlins were the most ever by the Dodgers in a three-game series, surpassing the 12 hit against the Brewers during the Shawn Green power conference May 21-23, 2002 in Milwaukee.

Reeling in the Marlins: The Dodgers absolutely drubbed Miami in 2019, winning five of six games with a composite score of 52-22. That included three straight games winning by at least eight runs — outscoring the Marlins 33-2 — tied for the longest such streak by the Dodgers against any one team (dating back to at least 1908). Brooklyn also beat the Cardinals three straight times from June 17-July 16, 1950 (composite score: 29-4), and did the same to the Cubs from Aug. 8-25, 1954 (composite score: 45-13).

Multi-positional: Tuesday’s romp in Miami ended with Russell Martin pitching and, because the Dodgers were already out of position players, they used pitcher Adam Kolarek at first base, a position he played twice earlier this season with Tampa Bay. Kolarek is just the second Dodgers pitcher since World War II to play first base, joining Fernando Valenzuela, who manned the position at the end of a 22-inning game in Houston on June 3, 1989.

After that game, Kolarek with the Dodgers had seen more defensive outs in the field while at first base (3) than while pitching (2).

Transactions

Tuesday: Tyler White was placed on the injured list with a strained right trap, and outfielder Kyle Garlick was recalled from Oklahoma City to replace him.

Friday: Josh Sborz was recalled from Triple-A in a bullpen swap, replacing the optioned J.T. Chargois.

Saturday: Julio Urias was suspended for 20 games by MLB for violating the domestic violence policy, with the five games he missed while on administrative leave in May counting against that total. Urias remains eligible for the postseason roster, and the earliest he can return to the Dodgers is Sept. 2. Casey Sadler was recalled from Triple-A to take Urias’ place on the active roster, and Urias joining the restricted list opened up a 40-man roster spot for Sunday’s move.

Sunday: Tony Gonsolin was called up to rejoin the starting rotation, and Jedd Gyorko was activated from the 60-day injured list to make his Dodgers debut. Sborz was sent back to Triple-A after two days of not pitching in the majors, and Edwin Rios was also optioned to Oklahoma City.

Game results

• Tuesday: Dodgers 15, Marlins 1
• Wednesday: Dodgers 9, Marlins 1
• Thursday: Marlins 13, Dodgers 7
• Friday: Dodgers 8, Braves 3
• Saturday: Braves 4, Dodgers 3
• Sunday: Braves 5, Dodgers 3

Stats

Previous weeks in review: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 | Week 17 | Week 18 | Week 19 | Week 20

The week ahead

The Dodgers are back home for some hot American League East action, running the Jesse Barfield gauntlet with the Blue Jays and Yankees in town. It’s the first time the Dodgers have hosted Toronto since 2007, and the first time the Yankees are in LA since 2013 (when Mariano Rivera was their closer).

The Yankees series will be televised by ESPN exclusively on Sunday, and the nationally televised on FS1 on Saturday won’t be blacked out. SportsNet LA will televise Friday and Saturday against the Yankees, with the series opener also available on Facebook Watch (out of market only).

Toronto’s rotation is only a guestimate, with starters for all three games in Los Angeles listed as TBA as of Sunday.