BALTIMORE — The Charm City’s charms have been dampened by sweat and obscured by haze this week. But the Dodgers have found the perfect antidote to the summer heat, energy-sapping humidity and Air Quality Alerts that met them in Baltimore.
There’s nothing like a five-run inning to make things more tolerable.
Their sixth-inning explosion on Monday night carried them to one victory over the previously red-hot Baltimore Orioles and they did it again in the second inning Tuesday night, starting them on their way to a 10-3 victory.
The Dodgers have won four of five games since returning from the All-Star break, eight of their last nine overall.
“You never know what you’re gonna get after a five-day layoff,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Going into the break, we were playing good baseball. I think guys have settled into their roles. The bullpen has stabilized. You just hope you can keep that momentum coming out of the break. We certainly have.”
The Dodgers batted around in two innings Tuesday, adding a four-run burst in the seventh inning.
Young pitching has been one of the driving forces in the Orioles’ emergence as playoff contenders this season, but the Dodgers have hammered them in the first two games of this series, scoring 16 runs on 24 hits. They added eight walks to the torment Tuesday against a team that had won eight games in a row coming into this series.
“Especially for guys you haven’t faced, I feel you have to do your best to keep it simple,” Dodgers outfielder Jason Heyward said. “Their starting pitching has been great but also their bullpen. They’ve got some All-Stars in there and some guys that help get the ball to those All-Stars. We’re just keeping it simple.
“I think that’s one thing that we’ve done a great job of just focusing on every single day. They’re going to come at us with these pitches. This is what makes them good. Take what they give us. It’s not always going to be a homer. Sometimes it’s going to be taking a walk or just putting the ball in play and forcing the defense to make a play. The more traffic we have on the bases, we like our opportunities with guys going up there focusing on one at-bat.”
Heyward only had one at-bat in the game but it was a big one. Facing Orioles right-hander Tyler Wells fell behind 2-and-0 then served up a fastball that Heyward re-directed 414 feet over the wall in straightaway center field.
“To be honest, I’ve always loved to hit off the fastball. But I know he has a lot of pitches to work with there,” Heyward said. “Like last night, they did a good job of painting stuff away, making good pitches on me. No matter what that pitch was there, fastball or off-speed, I just wanted to be ready for one on the plate and try not to do too much with it. We talked about us lefties trying to hit a line drive back through the middle.
“Got ahead in the count and put a good enough swing on it to do some damage.”
The Dodgers couldn’t do any more damage over the next four innings, stranding eight runners on base in that time before adding through passive aggression in the seventh. They sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning. Half of them walked. Only one got a base hit (an RBI single by J.D. Martinez) but a throwing error by Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman added to the four-run carnage.
Freeman was on base five times in the game – two singles, a double, a walk and a hit by pitch.
The early offense made things easier for right-hander Michael Grove.
Grove pitched into the sixth inning for the second consecutive start, allowing five hits and walking two but only one run. The Orioles had runners on base in all but one of Grove’s innings but got to him only on Aaron Hicks’ RBI double in the second inning.
It was not a favorable matchup for Grove, who has been vulnerable to left-handed hitters – a .345 average and 1.016 OPS coming into the start (compared to .267 and .770 by right-handers). The Orioles’ starting lineup featured four left-handed hitters and three switch-hitters.
“I think it has been in his head, and I think that’s a good thing,” Roberts said. “There’s some things you want to keep away from a player and try to protect them. But there’s other times where we’ve talked openly to Michael that he’s gotta get better.”
Toward that end, Grove has been incorporating a cut fastball recently, giving him a new weapon to use against lefties when his curveball isn’t sharp. It was “a neutralizer” against the Orioles’ lineup, Roberts said.
“Just kind of needed something to throw in on lefties,” Grove said. “I’ve been working on it the last couple of weeks and kind of got in a groove with it today and it ended up working. So I just kept sticking with it.
“It’s one of those pitches you kind of ease in and see how guys’ swings are against it. Like today, it was giving them some problems and kept going until somebody did something.”
Grove gave up a leadoff double to Rutschman in the sixth inning, then he walked Anthony Santander, prompting Roberts to put an end to his night.
The Orioles’ last chance to make a game of it disappeared as Yency Almonte put his foot down, retiring the next three batters. It was 10-1 by the time the Orioles threatened again and scored twice in the eighth.
Jake Marisnick entered the game in the third inning but left it in the fourth due to left hamstring tightness. Roberts said Marisnick will undergo an MRI on Wednesday but it is “pretty certain” this will land him on the injured list.
Putting up a five-spot in Baltimore. pic.twitter.com/7e7jSUrquQ
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 18, 2023
“I thought tonight was really a step in the right direction.” Dave Roberts gives Michael Grove credit for his performance against Baltimore’s talent. pic.twitter.com/SzFfLIRanq
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) July 19, 2023
“I’m not getting too caught up on just one outing.” Michael Grove speaks on staying focused on improving while securing wins. pic.twitter.com/i1qv55QisW
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) July 19, 2023
Freddie Freeman speaks on his hitting tonight and praises Jason Heyward on his professionalism. pic.twitter.com/y7wSSn6m7P
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) July 19, 2023
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