Dodgers Win Series in Los Angeles over Braves in Matinee

[Box Score]

The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to be a fun team to watch, and they took the series against the Atlanta Braves on a beautifully sunny day in California in which they played in the afternoon. The end result was a 5-1 victory over Atlanta to improve to a sparkling 9-3.

Tony Gonsolin had a no-hitter going for a while, and through three appearances he now sports one of the lowest ERA’s (0.69) in the entire league. He improved to 1-0 in six innings of scoreless work. Gonsolin is a guy the Dodgers are lucky to have – for instance with an injury sidelining Andrew Heaney – a guy like Gonsolin always does admirable work. Other teams would be happy to put him at the front of a rotation. However to the Dodgers, he’s just a luxury item.

Still, the story remains to be the resurgence season of Cody Bellinger. Bellinger had a hustle double in his first at-bat off Charlie Morton. Then, he had an RBI tripe to help break the game wide open.

It was another multi-hit effort for Bellinger who continues to look like the most impressive Dodger at the plate even including Freddie Freeman. That swing he had in the first inning to double off Morton was one he shortened up and just took it the other way, in a way it resembled an Ichiro Suzuki style poke. Orel Hershiser echoed my exact thoughts moments after I had them on the telecast. He said that Bellinger did that during his MVP season, and before all those home runs and that incredible season in 2019 really took off, these were the kind of little opposite field pecks he took that got him going. The same thing is taking place right now. Bellinger has more multi-hit games than any other Dodger through 12 games with six of them.

I think the home runs will come for him. Speaking of, Freddie Freeman hit a little wall scraper in the first inning for the Dodgers to put them ahead 2-0 against his former mates. This was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the afternoon.

Finally, I believe the Braves could be in for a long hangover year even after the return of Ronald Acuña Jr. from the IL. Something just seems ‘off’ with them, and they’re in a tough division with a good New York Mets team. While we await the return of Acuña to begin writing about his escapades, it’s something to watch that the Braves don’t seem quite right.