For those who are only interested in the final score of a Dodgers spring training game, they will be happy with Friday’s 7-6 win over their campmates, the Chicago White Sox, at Camelback Ranch. But for those who are more interested in how they got there, or better still, who it was that got them there, they will be even more pleased.

The game started with Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw tossing two innings of shutout / one-hit ball (a single), with the future Hall of Famer allowing one walk and striking out two on a total of 30 pitches. Kershaw would throw another simulated inning in the bullpen as he slowly builds himself up for his Opening Day start on March 29.

Just another two-inning shutout for the best in the game.
(Photo courtesy of MLB)

On the other side of the ball, outfielder Andrew Toles, designated hitter Travis Taijeron, outfielder Alex Verdugo and first baseman Edwin Rios had two hits each, while third baseman Jake Peter became the first Dodger to collect his second home run of the spring, with his first coming a day earlier.

But when all was said and done, it was a two-run home run by Dodgers outfielder and top prospect DJ Peters – his first of the spring – in the top half of the eighth inning that would prove to be the game-winner.

To be fair, anyone who has been following the Glendora, California native and lifelong Dodger fan over his brief two seasons of professional baseball knew that it was only a matter of when, not if, the Dodgers 2016 fourth-round draft pick out of Western Nevada College would connect for his first major league spring training home run … and connect he did, with a towering shot to (very) deep left-center field that landed halfway up the grass berm.

After working his eighth-inning / six-pitch at-bat to a full count, Glendora’s DJ Peters absolutely crushed the seventh pitch, sending it halfway up the grass berm in deep left-center field at Camelback Ranch.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

As most Dodger fans know, Peters spent the entire 2017 season with the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. All he did there was post a slash-line of .276 / .372 / .514 for an OPS of .886, while slugging 27 home runs to earn the prestigious 2017 California League MVP title. He was also invited to the Arizona Fall League this past off-season.

But even though all of the accolades Peters has received are nice and well deserved, the prize that he has his eye on this spring is to break camp as a member of the Dodgers Opening Day 25-man roster; a tall order when you consider that there are 14 guys fighting for three Opening Day outfield spots and (perhaps) two bench spots. However, to be brutally honest, DJ’s chances of making the Opening Day roster are, at best, long; not impossible by any means, but long none the less.

All of this said, it wasn’t the fact that Peters homered on Friday afternoon that undoubtedly drew the most attention of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, general manager Farhan Zaidi, and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman – heck, everyone on the planet knows that Peters has light-tower power and is pretty much expected to hit baseballs a very long way. No, what stood out most about Peters’ eighth-inning at-bat is that it was a great at-bat, perhaps among the best of his two-year professional career.

After swinging and missing at the first pitch from White Sox right-hander Connor Walsh, Peters took the second pitch for a ball. He then narrowly missed at least a double when he pulled the third pitch foul – by inches – down the left field line to go 1-2. He then lifted the next pitch foul down the right field line to keep the count at 1-2. Peters then laid off the next two pitches for ball two and ball three to run the count full.

Because Dodgers replacement left fielder Logan Landon had drawn a one-out / four-pitch walk just ahead of Peters, it was pretty much a given that DJ was looking for and would probably get a dead red fastball on a full count. But what Peters couldn’t see and, in fact, only those television viewers paying very close attention might have seen is that White Sox catcher Kevan Smith called for the 3-2 pitch to be up in the zone.

It was not.

Instead, Walsh’s 3-2 pitch came in at the knees and Peters absolutely crushed it for what would prove to be an eventual game-winning two-run home run.

It was, in every sense of the word, an exceptional at-bat by the 22-year-old Southern California native.

…the kind of at-bat that managers, general managers, and presidents of baseball operations are looking for when deciding who makes their Opening Day roster and who does not.