PHOENIX – For two consecutive days, the Dodgers let it slip away. Or, they threw it away.
Two throwing errors in as many games helped provide what was essentially Arizona’s entire offense during the Dodgers’ three-game set in Phoenix, with Gavin Lux’s two-run error fueling a three-run third inning on Tuesday. Max Muncy’s throw while fielding a bunt in the eighth inning Wednesday was too high for Lux to field while staying on the bag, flying into right field to score the eventual winning run in Los Angeles’ 3-1 series finale loss.
The lowly Diamondbacks, who hadn’t taken a series from the Dodgers since September 2019, recorded just nine hits all series and still managed to take two of three with some assistance from their foes.
“Up until this series, I thought we played good baseball, fundamental baseball, catching it and throwing it accurately,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “This series we didn’t do a good job of that. I don’t have an answer for it. I expect it to get back to normal.”
It was not a cause for immediate concern, but indeed a source of frustration for a club that lost just three games to Arizona in 2021.
Their struggles included bad walks from a pitching staff that has issued fewer free passes than any team in the National League, and a baserunning goof when Chris Taylor thought Mookie Betts’ fly ball Tuesday night would surely drop, only to get doubled off and end a rally. They also notched three errors, almost doubling their season total entering the week (and would have, if not for the Dodgers’ successful challenge Wednesday that Freddie Freeman got his foot back to the bag in time on another inaccurate Lux throw). Then there’s the offense that claimed early leads both Monday and Tuesday, only to not capitalize on having Zach Davies “on the ropes” and be dominated by Zac Gallen on Wednesday afternoon.
“I don’t think we had a good series,” Roberts said.
For much of Sunday morning, Freddie Freeman had his new teammates’ diligent attention. As he stood, the former MVP barked out instructions and even showed demonstrations of a skill he’s become elite at.
Some of his fellow hitters, like Edwin Ríos, listened intently. Brusdar Graterol did, too.
After all, Freeman is the Golden Tee master — he even has a set-up in his Southern California home, and claimed this week he’s played the game diligently “since I was four years old.” So when Graterol posted up at one of the consoles set up in the Petco Park visiting clubhouse, Freeman drifted over. For 10 minutes, he demonstrated the proper angles and technique to master the game.
Then he went out that afternoon and slugged his third home run as a Dodger. The transition from Atlanta has been smooth, and the production has been strong. The Dodgers paid a premium for Freeman’s consistency, and consistency’s what they’ve gotten with a batting line and profile largely consistent with his career averages in the early going.
Los Angeles’ lineup has lived up to the billing, as well, even with early struggles from the likes of Betts, Justin Turner and Muncy, in part due to Freeman’s consistent production and approach that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has said is “contagious.”
It’s also made it all the more puzzling that opposing clubs keep shifting the 32-year-old first baseman, whose early (and admittedly small-sample) batted-ball data has him pulling the ball less than ever. That may change as he taps into more of his power — two of his three homers this season came on balls hit to his pull side.
“I think it’s a ‘pick your poison’ type thing,” Roberts said. “There’s guys in the league and you have to make a decision. Do you want to incur potential slug to the pull side? Or take the base hit from Freddie Freeman? He’s a smart baseball player. He can handle the bat and it’s smart of him to take what they give you. And so he’ll take that all day long and if they come out in the shift then again, he can slug. I love the way he’s playing the game.”
Trea Turner has settled into a new role hitting third behind Freeman, just as he batted third behind Corey Seager and Muncy for different parts of last season after arriving in Los Angeles post-trade deadline.
He’s now started in the three-hole 44 times as a Dodger after doing so just four times in his big-league career prior to the deal. The longtime Nationals leadoff hitter has been amenable to the move in order to allow Betts to remain in the leadoff role he feels so comfortable with.
The production has largely been stellar — Turner finished last season by winning the batting title, and now has accrued at least one hit in 62 of the 70 games he’s played as a Dodger. And Roberts is confident Turner can re-flip the switch after a solid-but-not-spectacular start.
“Obviously there’s certainly a lot more in there, but it just speaks to how good he is to kind of be above water where he’s at,” Roberts said.
It doesn’t appear that Turner’s approach has changed all that much in the third spot in the order — he’s still getting on base at a good clip. His chase rate has mildly increased but is still around 30 percent. But Roberts pointed to something else that has changed recently.
“I think he’s pitched a little bit different,” Roberts said. “I think there’s more spin in there than when he hits at the top of the order. So it’s continuing to adjust to that three-hole, where he’s … an elite offensive player. He’s being open to it, but he’s still adjusting to it.”
So let’s investigate that, bucketing pitches by fastballs, breaking balls and offspeed (changeups, splitters, etc.) and seeing how those rates compare to the rest of Turner’s career based on Statcast data:
So on the whole, Turner isn’t seeing more spin — a conclusion he was curious about recently, digging through the numbers himself. But how he’s doing against breaking pitches (the lowest raw and expecting average and slugging percentage against the pitches in his career, along with a spike in whiff rate) and the fact that’s been a putaway pitch 35.7 percent of the time this season entering Wednesday shows there’s a difference in how that gameplan is impacting him early on. But it is early.
“It’s pretty consistent with last year,” Turner said of the volume of breaking balls he’s seeing. “I think just timing (of them), a few at-bats there. The last couple of weeks, first at-bat, the game was no fastballs. So I’m getting relatively the same amount. It’s just different situations and hitting third changes it a little bit. But (I’m) getting used to it.”
In some ways, it’s the same old story for Justin Turner – April woes spent searching for a mechanical adjustment that locks him back into his usual production.
“It always looks worse when your slow month is in April,” Turner said Tuesday. “The board looks a lot uglier.”
Through the first 70 plate appearances of 2022, the board has been unsightly — a .202/.257/.254 line with little power (just three extra-base hits) and little hard contact to show for it. For a guy whose career was remade through his ability to elevate and drive the ball, he’s put the ball on the ground a ton.
So, he’s been tweaking. He and Trea Turner took some early cuts prior to Tuesday night’s game at Chase Field, with Justin taking an adjustment he made there and bringing it into the game. He appeared much more open with his stance, something Justin said makes him feel “really good” in terms of putting himself in positions to do better damage on hittable pitches.
The early returns Tuesday night: a well-struck ball to the gap at 104.3 mph (with an expected batting average of .930) that would’ve gone for extra bases if not for a leaping Daulton Varsho grab, along with a double roped down the left-field line at 100.4 mph.
The rage around the Dodgers is the “sweeper.” But a different weapon is popularizing itself with some of Los Angeles’ leverage relievers, even post-Kenley Jansen: the cutter.
The pitch had been part of Blake Treinen’s mix for a few years now, but was upped in usage in 2021 (30 percent) and this season (41.5 percent) before he landed on the injured list.
Graterol picked up the pitch last season, cribbing his grip from Jansen and perfecting it while down in Oklahoma City before debuting it down the stretch run. Now, it’s his almost-exclusive offering against left-handed pitchers.
Then Tuesday night, Evan Phillips was tasked with pinning down a set of four hitters, three of which were left-handed. So he turned to the cutter he incorporated into his arsenal this spring. He threw the pitch seven times, the most he’d done so in a game this season – all against left-handers.
Evan Phillips just threw seven cutters after entering the night with nine this year. All have been against lefties. Didn’t throw one prior to this season.
Brusdar Graterol added something similar last year.
Here’s one that got weak contact: pic.twitter.com/HbHgF8Fvc9
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) April 27, 2022
Phillips’ grip on the cutter is essentially identical to that of his fastball, but he relies on a different pronation of his wrist that forces the ball to cut rather than stay straight or act like a hard slider.
“Comfort level (with it) is probably at seven out of 10 right now,” Phillips said Wednesday, “but it’s getting there.”
Treinen, Graterol and Phillips have combined to throw 63 cutters this season – only two against righties. It’s served as an antidote to some of the platoon splits their stuff would typically expose them to.
• Roberts said that the Dodgers are going to be “quite conservative” with how they bring Andrew Heaney back from the shoulder inflammation that landed him on the injured list last week. Heaney has yet to start playing catch.
“The more time before he picks up a baseball, the longer the buildup is going to be,” Roberts said.
• Treinen also hasn’t started playing catch yet as he too deals with shoulder inflammation, opting to work with the training staff in Los Angeles during the Arizona leg of this road trip.
• Dustin May threw a bullpen at Chase Field on Tuesday, his first time incorporating his cutter into a throwing session since undergoing Tommy John surgery almost a year ago. The right-hander estimated he’s about a month away from facing hitters, and he’s still targeting a return in the latter third of the season.
• Tommy Kahnle will throw back-to-back on Wednesday and Thursday with Triple-A Oklahoma City, the final stage in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. Roberts said he could be activated as soon as next week’s Giants series at Dodger Stadium.
• Danny Duffy recently started a throwing progression at Camelback Ranch as he works his way back from flexor surgery. The Dodgers have been plotting a midseason timetable for the former Royals starter to finally debut in the bullpen.
• Both Caleb Ferguson and Victor González are approaching rehab assignments. Roberts said the two could be back in mid- to late May, with Ferguson facing hitters this week at Camelback Ranch and González throwing a bullpen Tuesday at Chase Field.
(Photo of Freddie Freeman: Norm Hall / Getty Images)