Following his team’s painful 3-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said what every Dodgers fan on the planet has been saying (or at least thinking) thus far into the new season:

  “I just feel like we haven’t got going. When we pitch, we don’t hit, and when we hit, we don’t pitch.”  

Truer words have never been spoken.

The Dodgers “hit” in their first of three games against the New York Mets on Monday night, also at Dodger Stadium. In fact, Freeman himself hit two home runs, accounting for three of the Dodgers six total runs.

The Dodgers did not “pitch” on Monday night.

Although 25-year-old Dodgers right-hander Dustin May allowed five runs on five hits with one strikeout and no walks in his 5.2-inning start, he certainly pitched well enough to win, considering that his team finished the night with six runs on nine hits, including Freeman’s two jacks and a monster 433-foot solo home run by Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy (his longest of the season) to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Dodgers bullpen did not “pitch.”

With two outs in the top of the sixth inning, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaced May with 27-year-old Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia, this despite Vesia’s (then) less-than-stellar 7.71 ERA.

After intentionally walking always-dangerous Mets pinch-hitter Tommy Pham to put runners at first and second, Vesia struck out Mets third baseman Brett Baty to end the inning and stranding the tying and go-ahead runs on base.

And then Roberts did the unthinkable.

Knowing Vesia’s propensity to struggle horribly, even (and especially) after a ‘good inning,’ the Dodgers skipper sent him back out to pitch the top of the seventh.

Alex Vesia did not “pitch.”

Instead, Vesia allowed three consecutive singles to load the bases, after which Roberts finally saw the light (albeit a bit too late), bringing in (gulp) Dodgers struggling 27-year-old right-hander Phil Bickford to try to put out the fire.

Phil Bickford did not “pitch.”

Instead, with no outs and the bases loaded, he (wait or it…) balked in the tying run to make it a 6-6 ballgame. Bickford then gave up a run-scoring fielders choice ground out and a run-scoring sacrifice fly to make it 8-6 Mets. Bickford then walked the bases loaded and was finally replaced by Dodgers left-hander Justin Bruihl, who had been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City earlier in the day.

Fortunately, Bruihl did “pitch,” getting Baty to fly out to Dodgers center fielder Trayce Thompson to end the inning, but with the Dodgers now down by two.

Although the Dodgers “hit” in the bottom of the eighth with a leadoff single by (wait for it…) Freddie Freeman, followed by an unfortunate one-out ground rule double down the right field line by hot-hitting replacement left fielder James Outman (for Chris Taylor, who suffered what appeared to be a left oblique injury) on which Freeman would have easily scored had the ball not bounced into the stands but instead could only advance to third base. Muncy then popped out to Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil, and Dodgers second baseman Miguel Vargas struck out swinging, stranding Freeman at third base.

The Dodgers did not “hit” in the bottom of the ninth, with Thompson flying out to right, pinch-hitter David Peralta flying out to center, and pinch-hitter Jason Heyward grounding out to first.

As he often does, Roberts justified bringing in Vesia over far more successful Dodgers right-hander Evan Phillips in that game-changing eighth inning

“There’s always going to be a spot every night for a guy like Evan and you can’t fire that bullet every night,” Roberts answered, when called out on his decision to go with Vesia. “To be quite honest, I liked Vesia going back out there to get the nine hitter, to get the lefty, and I don’t expect three straight hits, to be quite honest.

“You have to understand the rhythm of the game, too,” Roberts continued. “If I knew that it was going to be bases loaded and Evan was ready, but I’m not going into that inning expecting bases loaded, nobody out either. So, I felt good with Alex going right there and taking down one or two outs, potentially with three hitters, and having Phil (Bickford) behind him, but that just wasn’t the case.”

Yes, it wasn’t.

By the way, and if you are into such things, Alex Vesia has now appeared in seven of the Dodgers thus far 17 games this season, and is sporting an 0-2 record with a team-worst 12.60 ERA.

In other words, Roberts was the only one who “…felt good with Alex going right there.”

Play Ball!

  *  *  *  *  *  *