Dodgers win 10th in a row with a team effort in Chavez Ravine

A truly combined effort for the Dodgers Wednesday led to this 8-5 win over the Twins to wrap up this two-game sweep. On one of those rare nights in which the Dodgers have the disadvantage on the mound, the bullpen and lineup stepped up to get it done.

Ryan Pepiot has provided decent results in his early big league career, but ever since his debut in Pittsburgh, the rookie right-hander has had to pitch himself out of tough situations, and you can only do that for so long.

A Jorge Polanco massive three-run bomb down the right field line in the top of the third inning certainly skews the final line, making 4 ¹⁄₃ innings with four earned runs look bad in the boxscore. But those are the growing pains Pepiot will go through and the right-hander didn’t let the game get away from the Dodgers.

Pepiot’s results were alleviated by the efforts of Alex Vesía, as the left-handed reliever came in to close out the top of the fifth inning. In typical Vesía fashion, he proceeded to make the mess even bigger by walking Jorge Polanco and allowing a single to José Miranda before getting a flyout with the bases loaded.

In hindsight, that was the moment for the Twins to run away with this game, but they failed to do so.

Before relinquishing the lead, the Dodgers actually opened up the scoring with a home run by the red-hot Max Muncy.

On the offensive side of the ball, despite the Max Muncy solo shot in the second inning, the lineup needed to do something it hasn't really needed to in this recent hot streak. They needed to come from behind following the Twins' four unanswered runs in the middle innings.

The returns of Justin Turner and Chris Taylor in it of their own, give this offense a depth that is hard to come by in baseball. Not to mention the possible resurgence of Max Muncy who’s been hot as of late, which could prove to be huge down the stretch.

All of that is plain to see on a night like this in which nine different hitters reach base safely and six of them have at least one RBI.

The Dodgers eventually took the lead in the bottom of the sixth on a Chris Taylor solo shot to the opposite field, and wouldn’t relinquish it. Evan Phillips came in and shut the door on the top of the Twins lineup with back-to-back strikeouts against Carlos Correa and Jorge Polanco before the offense had a chance to pad the lead.

The big moment of the night came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Joey Gallo came up to pinch hit with a couple of runners on, and went yard to the opposite field, giving the Dodgers an 8-6 lead.

Interestingly enough, the man with the highest ERA on the Dodgers staff to pitch tonight was the closer Craig Kimbrel. That’s telling of the room for improvement that Kimbrel has, but also of quality production from arms in all sorts of tiers in this Dodgers rotation and bullpen, on a night in which Pepiot, Vesia, Price, and Evan Phillips were the other four pitchers.

Wednesday’s particulars

Home Runs: Max Muncy (13), Chris Taylor (7), Joey Gallo (13). Jorge Polanco (15), Gary Sanchez (11)

WP ——- David Price (1-0): 1 IP, 1 strikeout

LP ——— Michael Fulmer (4-5): 1 IP, 1 hit allowed, 1 ER, 1 strikeout

Up next

The Dodgers hit the road for a weekend series against the Royals that will begin on Friday. Tony Gonsolin takes the ball for the first game of that series while the Royals have yet to announce their starter.