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Dodgers weekly recap: Do defending champs have any weakness?
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- Dodgers weekly recap: Do defending champs have any weakness?
Welcome to The California Post's weekly Dodgers recap, where baseball writers Dylan Hernández and Jack Harris review the week that was, hand out very official awards and take stock of the state of the season.
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Do the Dodgers even have a weakness?
At some point, the Dodgers will take their lumps. But right now, it's hard to see how.
Offensively, they lead the majors in runs per game, batting average, home runs and OPS — and are doing it while getting better numbers from their bottom-half hitters (.918 OPS from the Nos. 6-9 spots) than the group of superstars who have started quietly up top (.809 from the Nos. 1-5 hitters).
At some point, the Dodgers will take their lumps. But right now, it's hard to see how. Getty Images
On the mound, they rank second in ERA and have more reinforcements coming — with Blake Snell , Brock Stewart and plenty others behind them working back from injuries.
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They have also been superb defensively, leading the league in defensive runs saved thanks to particularly stout infield play, even in the wake of Mookie Betts ' injury.
And as long as they have indeed dodged a bullet with Edwin Díaz , there's really no big-picture area on the roster in which they face a currently pressing concern.
It's early, of course, and they'll surely regress somewhat from their current 126-win pace, especially as inevitable new injuries begin to crop up.
But if they keep anything close to this up, the race for MLB's 116 all-time wins record might be on.
The Dodgers' Andy Pages still is batting above .400 for the season. Getty Images
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Andy Pages (8-for-20, 2 HR, 8 RBIs this week; .409 average, 5 HR, 20 RBIs this season)
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At some point, one of the Dodgers' bigger superstars will go on a true heater. But for now, Andy Pages continues to spearhead the offense –– and lead the majors in batting average and RBIs.
The most impressive part of Pages' homestand was the way he got it started. Entering the week, he was coming off a four-strikeout clunker in the team's series finale in Toronto and had punched out in six of his previous seven at-bats overall.
If you thought that was his early-season flame flickering, however, the third-year slugger quickly ignited again.
Andy Pages continues to spearhead the offense –– and lead the majors in batting average and RBIs. Getty Images
Last Friday against the Rangers, he went 3-for-3 with a two-run double and two-run homer . And from there, he just kept on hitting, getting a knock in four of the next five games including a three-run homer Monday and a two-hit effort Wednesday.
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"I think certainly with young players, sometimes they tend to spiral as the game speeds up, and one bad game turns into four bad games," manager Dave Roberts said.
But with Pages, he noted, "he was able to right the ship pretty quickly and just stay to the fundamentals and basics."
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Indeed, Pages struck out just five times in the six-game span and also made several nice plays defensively.
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He's now up 1.4 wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs, better than anyone else in the National League (including, even, his two-way superstar teammate Shohei Ohtani ).
Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani fanned 10 Mets batters in his latest outing. AP
PITCHER OF THE WEEK
The Dodgers' rotation (6 starts, 2.63 ERA, 38 strikeouts this week)
There's no picking just one option here. Almost all of the Dodgers' starters were too impressive to separate.
There was Ohtani's 10-strikeout gem in his first game as a pitcher-only in five years. Yoshinobu Yamamoto 's old-school duel with Nolan McLean , in which he outlasted the rookie in a 7 ⅔-inning, one-run display. Justin Wrobleski and his stunning eight scoreless innings masterpiece . Even Emmet Sheehan turned a corner by completing six innings over the weekend –– leaving Roki Sasaki as the only current question mark in the rotation.
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The best part of the unit's production so far is what it has done for the Dodgers' bullpen.
The team's relievers have combined for just 58 ⅓ innings so far this year, fourth fewest in the majors. Only two of them –– Tanner Scott and Edgardo Henriquez –– have even been needed three times in a four-day span.
"Our 'pen is very rested," Roberts said. "That's a really good thing."
Remember, a heavy early-season workload is what contributed to the Dodgers' bullpen problems last year. If they can avoid that again, because of high-level starting pitching from a deep and talented rotation, it could make this year's pitching staff just as potent as the offense .
Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched an old-school duel with Nolan McLean, IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
PROSPECT OF THE WEEK
Zach Ehrhard (.309 average, 2 home runs, 11 RBIs in Triple-A this year)
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James Tibbs III has finally started to cool off.
But the other player the Dodgers acquired in last year's Dustin May trade had one of the most unique plays you will see this year.
On Tuesday, outfielder Zach Ehrhard hit a grand slam … on an inside-the-park home run.
It marked the highlight moment of what's been a strong start for Ehrhard, a former fourth-round pick of the Red Sox who is now hitting .290 since joining the Dodgers in last year's deadline-day deal.
FUTURE DODGER OF THE WEEK
(Where we identify a potential Dodgers' future acquisition –– sometimes far-fetched, sometimes not)
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Jose Soriano, LHP, Angels (ETA: 2029)
How sad it must be to be an Angels fan. The team is so bad that as soon as one of its players breaks out, as Soriano has, there's immediate speculation of where he'll be traded. Soriano looks like a legitimate ace, and the Angels could use a No. 1 starter (who couldn't?), but the dilapidated state of their roster would make it wise for them to trade him for multiple players. With owner Arte Moreno starting to resemble baseball's version of a late-stage Al Davis, the Angels are unlikely to pay what would be required to keep him beyond the years in which he is under club control.
Relying more on his four-seam fastball, the 27-year-old Soriano has allowed just one run and nine hits over the 27 innings he's pitched in four starts. He will be eligible for free agency after the 2028 season, by which point Ohtani will be 34 and Snell closing in on 36. Yamamoto could be within a year of being able to exercise an out-clause in his deal, and Tyler Glasnow will be out of contract entirely.
Dodgers veteran Max Muncy recently moved up the franchise's home run leaderboard. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post
ICYMI
–– Ohtani broke one of Ichiro Suzuki's records and still has his 48-game on-base streak going.
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–– Max Muncy reflected on his Dodgers legacy , after moving up the franchise's home run leaderboard following his three-homer game over the weekend.
–– 15 surprises from the Dodgers' first 15 games this season .
–– Alex Vesia had a special moment Monday , collecting a ninth-inning save in front of healthcare workers who helped him and his wife during last October's tragedy.
–– Dylan thinks Yamamoto will throw a no-hitter this year . Roberts, it turns out, agrees.
