Fact Number One – There was a benches-clearing brawl between the Dodgers and Padres at Petco Park on Friday night in between the top and bottom halves of the first inning, and like most baseball brawls, it was much ado about nothing.

Fact Number Two – If you want any other information on this nonsense, Google it, because we’re not going to waste any more time than we already have over it.

This is as much of Friday night’s nonsensical brawl as you are going to find here.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

What you will find here is the fact that Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood won his ninth consecutive game (without a loss) against the Padres at Petco Park on Friday night and did so in Kershaw-like fashion. The 26-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native allowed only one run on two hits while walking three and striking out eight in his six innings of work in the Dodgers eventual 10-4 pounding of the Padres.

“Woody has been unbelievable. It was the same stuff, just commanding and throwing the ball,” said Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes, after the game. “He had a pretty good streak there in the two, three and four, he was punching guys out. He just goes after hitters – both side of the plate – and just throws all of his pitches for strikes.”

Wood is now 9-0 on the season with an outstanding 1.83 ERA.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Speaking of Austin Barnes, all he did was go 2-for-5 with two home runs, including a grand slam in the second inning and a three-run home run in the sixth inning to drive in a career-high seven runs.

“It was fun, it was definitely fun,” said the 27-year-old Riverside, California native about his first career grand slam. “It was kind of you don’t know what’s going on when you’re running the bases, it was kind of one of those things.”

Barnes admitted that he initially didn’t think that it was going to go out.

“I put a good swing on it but it looked like they had a bead on it for a second, so I ran a little harder to first,” Barnes added.

It went out … and so did the one he hit in the sixth inning with two men on base.

Barnes’ grand slam hone run against the Padres on Friday night was the first of his career.
(Photo credit – Gregory Bull)

With his two home runs on Friday night, Barnes now has four on the season. And with the one that Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner hit in the fourth inning – his sixth of the season – the Dodgers finished the month of June with a total of 53 home runs, to increase their new franchise record for most home runs in a calendar month, which they set on Friday night with 50.

The Dodgers win now puts them 26 games over .500 on the season with a National League-best 54-28 record. This, coupled with a third straight loss by the second place Arizona Diamondbacks, has the Dodgers 3.5 games ahead of the Snakes and 6.0 games ahead of the Colorado Rockies, who finally snapped their eight-game losing streak on Friday.

Needless to say, the Dodgers are off to a great start to the second half of the 2017 season.

…brawls notwithstanding.