by Cary Osborne
The Dodgers had 29 July days without Corey Seager, 27 without Clayton Kershaw, the last 11 missing Mookie Betts and much of the month without a regular fifth starter.
On the final day of a challenging month, the Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8–3 on Saturday to finish with a winning record in July (14–12).
August will bring optimism, with arrivals of new faces — Max Scherzer and Trea Turner and possibly Danny Duffy. And old, particularly Betts, who is expected to be activated from the injured list and start on Sunday — the first of the month.
“The whole season really has just been a grind with some injuries, some guys going down. It’s been next-guy-up mentality and finding ways to win ballgames,” said Justin Turner, whose two-run home run in the seventh inning broke a 3–3 tie. “Hopefully we’re getting close to getting everyone back, and it’s going to be exciting to see our full roster out there every single night.”
The Dodgers scored five runs from the seventh inning on, adding two RBI singles from Albert Pujols, including a pinch-hit RBI single with the bases loaded in the seventh inning and a single in the ninth on a pitch he was jammed on.
It’s the second game in a row that Pujols has collected a pinch-hit RBI single. He is now 7-for-18 (.389) pinch-hitting for the Dodgers.
“Obviously you’re going to look back at this game and look at JT’s homer, which was obviously a big hit, but guys keeping the line moving, using the whole field was unbelievable,” said manager Dave Roberts. “And I think for me, the highlight was that Pujols at-bat (in the ninth inning). You’ve got the infield in, man on third base, and you’re just fighting. It was a fight to move that ball forward and drive in a run. … That just showed tonight our desire to win a baseball game.”
The Dodgers have been better late the last two nights in comparison to their previous eight games. From the sixth inning on Friday and Saturday, they scored five runs in each game. In the Dodgers’ previous eight games, they scored a combined seven runs from the sixth inning on.
White Sets the Tone in Bullpen Game
The Dodgers, having traded rookie Josiah Gray in the deal that landed Scherzer and Trea Turner from Washington and low on starting pitching, went to a bullpen game on Saturday for the sixth time this month.
The ask for Mitch White was to go as far as he could in his first Major League start within a 40–60 pitch range. He got the Dodgers into the fourth inning, one night after eight Dodger relievers pitched.
White pitched three clean, efficient innings. In the fourth, he allowed a one-out walk, then a two-run home run to Kole Calhoun, which cut the Dodger lead to 3–2. After inducing a popout, his night was over.
His final line in his 15th appearance this season was: 3 2/3 innings, two hits, one walk, five strikeouts and two runs.
“It was just so fun to watch, and we needed that. To his credit, he set the tone for this evening,” Roberts said.
The Diamondbacks tied the score 3–3 on a Nick Ahmed solo home run in the fifth inning off reliever Garrett Cleavinger. However, the Dodger bullpen shut the Diamondbacks out the rest of the way.
The combination of Victor González, Alex Vesia, Joe Kelly, Blake Treinen and Edwin Uceta allowed one baserunner over the final 4 2/3 innings.
The Dodger bullpen logged 12 1/3 innings over the last two games.
“I told our guys, tip our cap to our bullpen out there grinding,” said Justin Turner.
July Hitters
The big hitters of the month all had multi-hit games on Saturday. Chris Taylor, Max Muncy, Justin Turner and AJ Pollock each had a pair of hits. Will Smith went 3-for-5.
In July, they batted:
Pollock: .371/.424/.697/1.121
Taylor: .333/.369/.619/.988
Turner: .326/.402/.584/.986
Muncy: .315/.402/.562/.964
Smith: .265/.366/.500/.866
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