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Dodgers bounce back from shutouts

Plus the Trea Turner trade, and the continuing great season for Julio Urías

By Jex Musa

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Division Series - San Francisco Giants v Los Angeles Dodgers - Game Four
Will Smith of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after his two run home run against the San Francisco Giants, Oct. 12, 2021.
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

No, really. The Dodgers have been shut out this year only seven times. Two of those came in the last week during the NLDS against the Giants. Another of those seven losses was also against San Francisco back in July.

The other teams that managed what seems like a Herculean feat to shut out the Dodgers lineup? The Phillies, the Cubs, the Astros, and the Rockies.

Those games have been frustrating because you know the Dodgers are capable of hitting. LITERALLY LOOK AT THE DEPTH OF THIS LINEUP. What has happened each time they’ve gotten shut out, though? The next game (minus one), they’ve won. And in those next-day wins, the Dodgers lineup hits an average of 6.2 runs.

Twice IN THIS SERIES, LA has done it: losing 4-0, then winning 9-2 in Game 2; losing 1-0 in Game 3 (truly the most painful one), and then again turning it around to win Tuesday, 7-2.

Is it due to the fire that gets lit from being shut out? Is it from Dave Roberts reshuffling that line-up for the 165th time this year? Is it just that the offense is that good and you can’t keep them down for long? Let’s hope all of the above. As Pedro Martínez said Tuesday on TBS after the game, “The Dodgers never took the pedal off the metal... and they stepped on the Giants’ heads.”

Dodgers Links

  • Did you know there’s a Dodgers team thread where they send each other meme gifs of Trea Turner’s smooth slides? Well, there is. As Scott Miller at the NY Times points out, the new Turner is fitting into the club very nicely. You’ve got to admire Andrew Friedman’s maneuvers and how the Dodgers pulled off getting Trea Turner in the Max Scherzer deal.
  • Julio Urías recorded 20 wins this year, an MLB best. What’s odd is that Gabe Kapler, now manager for the Giants, definitely saw it coming. Kapler was the Dodgers farm director back when Urías was in the minors. He said this past weekend of Urías:

“I remember thinking about [Corey] Seager and Urías, these guys are both going to be excellent Major League players.”

Bernie Pleskoff at Forbes has more on Urías’s stellar season

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