Dodgers' Lefty Sluggers Getting Right Just in Time For the Postseason
With the 2020 postseason on deck, the Dodgers’ struggling left-handed sluggers appear to have fixed the problems they were having at the plate.
During the past seven days, Cody Bellinger is batting .353/.542/.706 in 24 plate appearances, with a home run and two batted in. Over the past two weeks, his slash average is .341/.463/.568, with two homers and seven RBI. And he's at .266/.389/468, with 4 HR and 11 RBI in the last four weeks.
Max Muncy has had a disappointing short-season, hitting just .197/.335/.399, but with 12 home runs and 27 RBIs, which is helpful. He's hit .211/.348/.526 over the past seven days, insists his approach is correct and smashed a home run in each of the Dodgers’ first two games against his old Athletics team this week. So when Muncy gets a hit, he’s making it count.
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Joc Pederson, who has been away from the club on and off with family concerns, has notched just seven plate appearances during the past week, hitting .333/.429/.333, and had sharp RBI pinch-hit single in Friday's night's L.A. win over the Angels at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers also have the power left-handed bat of Edwin Rios, who homered last night, and in the past two weeks has put up a .300/.323/.733 mark, with 4 HR and 7 RBIs in 31 PAs. Though the Dodgers would surely prefer he walk more, Rios' .348 career minor league on base percentage in 1670 at bats is a better indication of what he can do than the .296 OBP in 74 at bats to date in 2020.
He also doesn’t have to sit against left-handed pitching, having compiled a .286/.353/.786 line in those matchups this season.
Nearly two weeks ago, the concern was whether or not enough games remained in the regular season for the Dodgers’ top left-handed hitters (excepting Corey Seager, who’s having an MVP-caliber season) to correct themselves. Apparently, that was just the right amount of time prepare for the postseason.
Ian Casselberry watchdogs sports media for Awful Announcing. He’s covered baseball for SB Nation, Yahoo Sports and MLive, and was one of Bleacher Report’s first lead MLB writers. Please follow Ian on Twitter @iancass and give him a listen at The Podcass.
