Checking in on those Dodgers doubles

The Dodgers hit four doubles in Tuesday night’s series-opening win over Arizona, tied for their second-most in a game this season. Chris Taylor had two of them, and drove in four runs.

After an early burst of doubles, the Dodgers were on a franchise record per-game pace, though have since cooled off. They are tied for eighth in MLB with 63 doubles, which at 1.70 doubles per game is roughly 275 over the course of a 162-game season. They’ve topped that in each of the last three seasons, and in their run of seven division titles averaged 290 doubles per year.

From both the Dodgers and their opponents, there have been 2.47 doubles per game at home compared to 2.90 on the road, so Dodger Stadium might be suppressing doubles a little bit, though that’s not much different than in recent years.

A.J. Pollock leads the Dodgers with nine doubles, which is a pace for 39 in a full season. Corey Seager and Mookie Betts each have eight doubles, a 35-double pace over 162 games. Those two near the top isn’t surprising since both average over 40 doubles per 162 games in their career.

Betts also leads the team with 11 home runs, and Seager has nine. Both are well ahead of their usual home run rate, Betts on pace for 48 homers (his career high is 32) and Seager for 39 (his career best is 26). Seager’s previous high for home runs through the first 37 games of a season was five, in 2017. Betts had 13 home runs through Boston’s first 37 games in 2018, when he finished with 32 homers and won the American League MVP.

There have only been three times a Dodger had both 35 home runs and 35 doubles in the same season — Duke Snider in both 1953 and 1954, and Babe Herman in 1930. The 60-game equivalent, if there is such a thing, is 13 of each.

But there have been a ton of folks to have at least eight home runs and eight doubles through the Dodgers’ first 37 games. It’s happened 22 times, in fact. The most recent occurrence, before this year, was Adrian Gonzalez in 2015, who had a ridiculous 17 doubles through 37 games, to go with his nine home runs. He finished with 28 home runs, his high with the Dodgers, but ended up with only 33 doubles, hitting 16 over the team’s final 125 games.

Zac Gallen has allowed only three doubles in seven starts this season, one of them by Edwin Rios in Phoenix on July 31. Walker Buehler has allowed two doubles in five starts.

Game info

Time: 6:40 p.m. PT

TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out of market only)