Dodgers manager Dave Roberts recently warned fans that there would be rough periods of play during the early part of the 2020 season. With an abbreviated Summer Camp and only three exhibition games, there were simply not enough competitive game situations for the players to be major-league ready by opening day.

Doc nailed it.

In the third game of the season on Saturday afternoon and playing an inferior San Francisco Giants team, there were some really ugly performances by Dodgers players:

• Dodgers hitters stranded eight base runners, including five left in scoring position with two outs; two each by Kiké Hernandez and Mookie Betts and one by Corey Seager.
• Baserunning errors (aka – TOOTBLAN) by Austin Barnes, Joc Pederson, and Justin Turner resulted in three Giants double plays.
• Chris Taylor being thrown out at third base with no outs in the fourth inning and Pederson being doubled off of first base on a flyout to short centerfield to end the fourth were inexcusable.
• Dodgers starter Alex Wood made 69-pitches in three innings, walking three and surrendering three earned runs.
• Dodgers reliever Dennis Santana threw 34-pitches in two innings, allowing two earned runs.

“A little too much aggressiveness and a couple of them are just mental mistakes,” Roberts told reporters during his postgame media scrum. “Win or lose, it’s how you play the game, and I think how we got there today, I’m not pleased with. You leave four outs on the field, we pride ourselves on intelligence and running the bases and knowing the scoreboard. When you get doubled off four times and give away outs, that’s just not helpful.”

But for as poorly as the Dodgers played during the first half of the game, they were still in a position to tie or win the game in the ninth inning. Relievers Joe Kelly, Blake Treinen, Jake McGee, and Dylan Floro had shut down the Giants offense over the last four innings of the game, and Seager drove in two runs in the eighth inning with a timely base hit. When catcher Will Smith led off the bottom of the ninth inning with his first home run of the season, the team was only one run down with the top of the lineup coming to bat. Unfortunately, Max Muncy‘s and Betts’s hard-hit balls were right at Giants fielders, and Bellinger’s lazy fly ball to left field ended the game.

Final score: Giants 5 – Dodgers 4

The Dodgers lost the game but may have received a much-needed wake-up call for the remainder of the 2020 season. As talented and deep as the team is, they must collectively play sound, fundamental baseball to reach their goal of becoming World Champions.

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