SAN FRANCISCO — They’ve underperformed relative to preseason expectations, however labored round severe roster limitations.
They’ve wowed with an undefeated begin, a high-scoring offense and a snug division lead. And but, they’ve left a lot to even be desired, each on the mound from their injury-plagued pitching workers and on the plate amid uncharacteristic slumps from a number of veteran stars.
No, the Dodgers haven’t performed like “The Greatest Team Ever” within the first half of the season. Their record-setting $400-million payroll is just not bidding for any all-time wins mark.
However, after grinding out a 5-2 extra-innings win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday to enter the All-Star break with a key divisional sequence victory, their first half has been a quiet success nonetheless, concluding with the Dodgers (58-39) holding a 5 ½-game lead within the Nationwide League West, the highest file within the NL and nonetheless the most effective odds of being baseball’s first repeat champion in a quarter-century.
Sunday epitomized the duality of the Dodgers’ first 97 video games.
Their beginning pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, accomplished his stellar begin to the season with a seven-inning gem, holding the Giants (52-45) off the scoreboard whereas yielding three hits, two walks and placing out seven batters.
If the Dodgers have been to choose a first-half MVP, maybe solely Shohei Ohtani would outpace Yamamoto, who enters the break as a first-time All-Star due to his 9-7 file, 2.59 earned-run common and 6 separate outings of six or extra scoreless innings (tied for second-most such begins within the majors this season, behind solely Tarik Skubal).
“He’s been really good,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated earlier than the sport, wholly satisfied the 26-year-old Japanese right-hander would bounce again from his ugly five-run first inning in Milwaukee final week. “Even now, having a rough one the last one, he’s just to the point where he knows he’s a really good pitcher, he’s an All-Star and he has high expectations for himself. He’s just been very valuable.”
Miguel Rojas gestures after hitting a house run within the fifth inning for the Dodgers on Sunday.
(Jeff Chiu / Related Press)
Nevertheless, the again finish of the bullpen remained an issue, with nearer Tanner Scott blowing a 2-0 lead within the backside of the ninth by giving up a two-run dwelling run to pinch-hitter Luis Matos.
Scott, a $72-million signing this offseason, has transformed solely 19 of his 26 save alternatives. He has a 4.09 ERA and eight dwelling runs given up. And his struggles have made the bullpen a main space of want for the Dodgers coming into the commerce deadline.
The Dodgers’ offense has been equally quixotic.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman each hit the halfway level mired in prolonged slumps — although Freeman contributed a pair occasions Sunday, lining an RBI double within the fourth inning earlier than placing the Dodgers again in entrance within the eleventh with a bloop single that dropped in middle.
Freddie Freeman hits a run-scoring single within the eleventh inning Sunday in opposition to the Giants.
(Jeff Chiu / Related Press)
Whereas Ohtani has pitched fantastically in his restricted motion on the mound, his offense has declined since resuming a two-way position. When he singled within the fifth inning Sunday, it marked his first hit this season to come back on the day instantly following one in all his pitching begins.
And although catcher Will Smith has a wholesome lead for the NL batting title, incomes his third-straight All-Star nod with a .323 mark, others towards the underside of the lineup have been chilly, from Teoscar Hernández (who’s hitting barely .200 since getting back from an adductor damage in Might; although added an infield single in Sunday’s eleventh inning rally) to Andy Pages (whose All-Star candidacy fizzled with a .220 common in his previous 16 video games, regardless of additionally chipping in with an RBI single within the eleventh) to Tommy Edman (whose defensive versatility has been helpful, however completed the primary half in an 0-for-23 droop).
Such struggles are reminders of how the Dodgers stay fallible of their pursuit of one other World Collection.
Their banged-up pitching workers stays one other wild card of their pressure-packed title protection (although Tyler Glasnow has already returned, Blake Snell and Blake Treinen must be again shortly after the All-Star break, and Roki Sasaki is on observe for a late August return after throwing a long-awaited bullpen session this week).
And for big swaths of the primary half, all of it made the Dodgers look exceedingly mortal; none extra so than in the course of the seven-game shedding streak that preceded their back-to-back wins in opposition to the Giants to shut out this weekend’s sequence.
Nevertheless, these points have nonetheless accomplished little to no injury to the group’s long-term probabilities, with a irritating however fruitful opening act to this marketing campaign leaving the Dodgers proper the place they wish to be — even when, as Sunday epitomized, they haven’t gotten there the best way they’d have hoped.
