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By Jon Weisman
Justin Turner’s weekend of heroics continued.
Turner’s third home run in two nights brought the Dodgers’ roaring back from a 5-2 deficit in the third inning, putting them on their way to a 10-6 victory over Milwaukee.
The biggest of the 14 Dodger hits that also included homers by Howie Kendrick and Joc Pederson, Turner’s blast — his sixth homer in his past 12 starts — marked the halfway point in the Dodgers’ six-run inning, their biggest of 2016. And it salvaged a night in which starting pitcher Mike Bolsinger couldn’t make it out of the third inning.
Roberts said @MBolsinger had cramping during his outing. Labored through 2.2 IP.
— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) June 19, 2016
In fact, Bolsinger and Milwaukee’s Chase Anderson, childhood friends who were best men at each other’s weddings, each threw exactly 29 balls and 44 strikes in 2 1/3 innings tonight. Anderson took the loss, while Chris Hatcher, who threw 2 1/3 shutout innings, was the Dodgers’ winning pitcher.
Hatcher, who made his MLB debut as a catcher in 2010 but went 0 for 6, also picked up his first career hit, an RBI single in the third.
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Bolsinger’s short outing meant that the Dodgers only received 34 innings from their starting pitchers in their seven games this week — less than five per start. Clayton Kershaw’s 7 1/3 innings Wednesday was two innings longer than any other Dodger start. That burden on the bullpen, plus the continued rehab progress of Yasiel Puig (who went 1 for 4 with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga tonight), could mean a changing of the guard at one or two roster spots in the next 48 hours.
At one point, 48 hours seemed like a likely length for tonight’s game. Remarkably, it took the Dodgers and Brewers exactly 99 minutes to play the first three innings, putting them on pace to break the Dodger Stadium record for longest nine-inning game, set on the final day of the elongated 1962 season: 258 minutes on October 2, 1962. But things smoothed out a bit over the final six innings, and the teams wrapped things up well before the four-hour mark.
(Noted only for mind-blowing trivia’s sake: The Dodger Stadium record for shortest nine-inning game was a 3-0 Al Downing shutout on May 20, 1972, a game that took place 11 days before Dodger manager Dave Roberts was born. The losing pitcher in that game was … Dave Roberts.)
Pederson, batting leadoff for the first time this year, was 3 for 5. The first four men in the Dodger starting lineup (Pederson, Corey Seager, Turner and Adrian Gonzalez) went 10 for 18 with two walks, two doubles, two homers and at least one healthy coiffure.
Corey Seager is so good, he doesn’t even get hat hair. pic.twitter.com/Vh4yXpdMZH
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) June 19, 2016
throwdeuce
If Puig is eligible to come off DL today, I say put Bols on DL or send him down for him.
His spot can be skipped next time in rotation. Then when it’s needed again in 9 days bring up Frias, DeLeon, or Lee by sending Urias back down (since it sounds like they’re shutting him down for a while), and whichever reliever is doing the worst at that time (Baez has options, but Coleman and Fein are showing cracks, Hatcher has been better lately).