Of the first 15 Dodgers batters to step to the plate in Monday night’s series opener against the NL East first-place Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium, eight of them got hits … four of which were home runs.

“Tonight was more indicative of what we can do,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts would say postgame.

That’s the good news.

The not-so-good news is that they only got two hits after that, both of which were harmless singles, with both runners left stranded on base.

“I hear your point,” Roberts said when pressed on this rather significant matter. “But I think tonight, overall, balls in our nitro zones, I thought we were ready to fire on, and balls that were not, we were more passive, and that’s what I want.”

Sounds good, right?

But here’s the problem with that ‘more passive’ thing. Although Dodgers’ starter – 25-year-old World Series hero left-hander Julio Urías – would finish his night after six innings, having allowed only four hits and no walks while striking out seven, two of those four hits were also home runs. Fortunately, they, too, were of the solo variety in the eventual 5-3 Dodgers win – Urías’ MLB-leading 15th of the season.

“He was fantastic,” Roberts said of the young Culiacan, Mexico native who is now 15-3 on the season with an impressive 3.17 ERA, 160 strikeouts, and 32 walks. “Coming off the IL [left calf contusion], he just picked up where he left off. I thought he held his stuff, made good pitches. They took a couple good swings on him in that sixth inning, but I thought, overall, he gave us exactly what we needed. He’ll be ready to go against the Giants.”

Speaking of the Giants, they fell to the Milwaukee Brewers in San Francisco on Monday night and now lead the Dodgers by a mere 1.5 games in the NL West standings. The two teams square off against each other for a three-game series September 3-5 at Oracle Park, which will more than likely determine the NL West division winner.

Play Ball!

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