Last year at this point in the season, the Dodgers were under .500, struggling nastily with a declining Adrian Gonzalez in the cleanup spot.
Chris Taylor hadn't yet appeared, so the Dodgers were batting Logan Forsythe leadoff, with zero results. But then the real savior arrived in the form of Cody Bellinger, who proceeded to come up from the minors and hit 39 homers in 120 games. The reason it wasn't more homers, and more games, is that the Dodgers stuck him in the outfield for Gonzalez could get some "veteran at-bats," and then Bellinger got hurt.
Well, now Bellinger and his smooth swings, smooth slide, and long legs have been firmly planted at first, where they'll remain for at least a decade.
Cody Bellinger with the Houdini slide pic.twitter.com/7ApcsAbGlq— #PitchersWhoRake (@PitcherzWhoRake) April 23, 2018
Yet the Dodgers still played poopily the first two weeks of the season. Of late, there've been signs of emergence, as they've entered what some call the "soft part" of the schedule and I call playing the Padres and a half-strength Nationals team. Well, this week the schedule got softer than a poached egg at the Ritz-Carlton. The Marlins, coached by former Dodger manager and conventional wisdom machine Don Mattingly arrived, with a group of male humans.
To face this almost-team, the Dodgers called up 23-year-old phenom Walker Buehler from the minors. Here is a video of him dancing and singing in the offseason during a parade in Chicago.
But in addition to being a sweet-ass lip-syncer, Buehler also has a shredding fastball and an 85 MPH curve. He gave up four hits, a couple of walks, and no runs in five innings. As a lesser baseball blog pointed out, “Buehler threw eight pitches 99 MPH or faster tonight. That’s more than 16 teams have thrown ALL YEAR.”
The Dodgers have won seven of eight and are over .500 for the first time this season, with the next six games against the Marlins and the Giants. Only five months to catch up with Arizona. Can we do it? I think we can, I think we can.
The rotation is hardly where the Dodgers need the most help, but even if Buehler doesn't stick around this time, the team just got a whole lot better with him in the dugout and on the mound. He replaced Wilmer Font, the worst pitcher in all of baseball, who has been designated for assignment. I hope the Font finds an excellent second career. Here he is on the way out of Dodger Stadium.
Then, because I can't figure out the formatting on this stupid system, he's followed by a sweet-ass play from my best friend Kiké Hernandez, who should play every position every day.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 24, 2018
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