Dodgers Week Three Recap: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Dodgers entered the third full week of the 2018 season with a 5-9 record and looking to right the ship and shake the “it’s early” narrative once and for all… here I present to you the third iteration of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” for Dodgers Nation.
Past articles:
Quick Hits
- Week record: 5-1
- Season record: 10-10
- 3rd place in the National League West, 4.5 games back of Arizona.
The Good
- For the greater part the Dodgers’ bats came alive in week three, leading to a sweep of the Padres in San Diego – giving the team its first series win, and first sweep of the season – and helping the team take two of three against the Nationals at Dodger Stadium.
- Yasmani Grandal extended his hitting streak to 11 straight as he continued to be the clutch run producer in the lineup with 11 RBI during the week. #NLPlayerOfTheWeek?
- Joc Pederson had a pair of two-hit games, and clubbed his first homerun of the season on his 26th birthday:
Birthday bash. #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/F5B1ja7xnP
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 22, 2018
- Cody Bellinger also clubbed a dinger on his bobblehead night:
Someone out there tonight got a @Cody_Bellinger bobblehead AND a Belli ?. pic.twitter.com/fMSALfDtcW
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) April 22, 2018
- Hyun-Jin Ryu continued his resurgent season allowing 2 ER in 13 IP on the week, lowering his season ERA to 1.99. #Ace?
- Kenley Jansen appeared to turn the corner after a pair of solid outings against Washington, including a save.
- A Justin Turner update: Turner progressed to hitting off a tee and played light catch Friday, per David Vassegh of AM 570 LA Sports.
- And finally, our very own dodgersnation.com launched a merch store this week. Be sure to check it out here.
Reminder 20% off on the DN Store => https://t.co/ztesRzaJBh – Our first batch of designs! Thanks for all the continued support from everyone! pic.twitter.com/vW2CgOKHkM
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) April 23, 2018
The Bad
- As I mentioned above, the Dodgers’ bats for the most part came alive, but the struggle with clutch at-bats still seem to be a problem. More frustrating than that, the inability to drive in runners from third base with less than two outs continues to be an Achilles heel.
- It wasn’t a terribly easy 5-1 week as Kenley Jansen continued his early struggles by blowing a 2-run save opportunity in San Diego, leading this writer to the only logical fear: with Kenley’s struggles, and Pedro Baez being surprisingly serviceable thus far, are we dealing with some sort of Freaky Friday situation?
We've reached this point of the game… will the Baez/Jansen Freaky Friday season continue?#Dodgers pic.twitter.com/qHSpxSwCiG
— Clint Pasillas (@realFRG) April 23, 2018
The Ugly
- Alex Wood fared well in his two starts this week, but to the watchful eye, he still appears to missing his spots too often. Also, he really needs to learn how to throw the ball to second base.
- Rich Hill has more finger issues! Looking to follow up on #BlisterGate2017, this time a split fingernail landed him on the disabled list.
Forecast
Back at the .500 mark and entering week 4, the Dodgers will look to take advantage of bad teams with 3 games against the Miami Marlins, and 4 against the San Francisco Giants.
Dodgers top prospect Walker Buehler will make his Major League starting debut on Monday against the fish.
I’ll end on a fun note from Ryan Walton on Twitter:
UPDATE: After 20 games:
2017 Dodgers: 9-11 3rd 5 GB
*Cody Bellinger called up next day2018 Dodgers: 10-10 3rd 4.5 GB
*Walker Buehler called up the next day#AheadOfThePace ?https://t.co/pS0IEMVwaa— Ryan Walton (@RyanCPWalton) April 23, 2018
[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=”https://dodgersnation.com/game-recap-dodgers-drop-nationals-behind-ryus-gem-bs0193/2018/04/22/”]Game Recap: Dodgers Drop Nationals Behind Ryu’s Gem[/button]
