Justin Turner and Manny Machado lead the Dodgers to victory

After being humiliated by the red hot St. Louis Cardinals, this series is just what the Dodgers needed in order to get back on track. ‘Players weekend’ was highlighted by Justin Turner and Manny Machado who took down the Padres during this three game series. The Dodgers managed to stop the bleeding of their recent performances by sweeping the San Diego Padres.

Friday night, Dodger fans witnessed an absolute blowout that was fueled by Rich Hill, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger. This was a game that the Dodgers had to win if they wanted to stay relevant in their hunt for a sixth straight division title. Los Angeles routed the Padres on Friday by scoring 11 runs and limiting the Padres to just 1 run.

On Saturday night, Clayton Kershaw continued his post Disabled List dominance by striking out nine batters and allowing 3 runs but only 2 earned runs. Unfortunately that would not be enough to win the game as Jansen couldn’t hold down the ninth inning and gave up a game tying home run to Padres Catcher, Austin Hedges. Unlike Kershaw, Kenley Jansen has not performed well since returning from the Disabled List. Jansen is serving up home run’s like hot cakes out there in the ninth inning. Now that’s not to say he won’t eventually return but as of right now, it isn’t looking good. I believe that Jansen needs rest and a little relaxation.

A major highlight of the game was Manny Machado’s 30th Home Run of the season which was a 3-Run shot in the first inning. This would mark four straight seasons that Machado has recorded 30+ Home Run’s!

As the game went in to extra innings, the newest addition to the bullpen, Kenta Maeda pitched the tenth inning and kept the Dodgers from losing another well fought game. Then Caleb Ferguson came in and dominated for two innings giving the Dodgers a chance of winning. Those last two innings were all the Dodgers were going to need as they went into the bottom of the twelfth inning looking to end the game.

Before they could do that, the power went out. That is now two times this month that the power has gone out at Dodger Stadium. Both times have lasted roughly 20 minutes or so. After the power outage ended, Justin Turner came up to the plate to end the game. With Matt Kemp in scoring position, Turner hit a bloop single that would land perfectly and allow Matt Kemp to score the game winning run. Justin Turner once again is a walk off hero for the Dodgers.

Speaking of Justin Turner, in the final game of the series against San Diego, Turner dominated and went 3-5 with 5 RBI’s and 1 run scored. To top it off, Manny Machado continued his hot series by hitting another Home Run.

Heading into the fifth inning, the Dodgers had yet to score and they were starting to look like the team that was playing against the Cardinals. Until Turner came up and cleared the bases for what would be his first set of RBI’s on the day. Shortly after Justin Turner’s double, Machado hit his Home Run.

Following the fifth inning, Justin Turner would produce again and single with runners on second and third base. Add another two RBI’s to Turner’s day. If you thought that wasn’t enough RBI’s for Justin Turner, well then check this out. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Turner doubled AGAIN and scored Max Muncy. Rounding out his day with 5 RBI’s, 2 Doubles and a single. Essentially, Justin Turner decided to take things in his own hands and do all the hitting and produce all of the runs.

Now that the Dodgers have swept the Padres, they’ve gained 2 games on the Diamondbacks and now sit just 2.5 games back of first place. With that being said, the Dodgers travel to Arlington, Texas to take on the last place Texas Rangers. This should be an easy series for the Dodgers but nothing is ever easy when it comes to baseball. I mean, the best team in baseball, the Boston Red Sox, just got swept by the Tampa Bay Rays. Why you ask? Because baseball.

When the Dodgers return home, they play a four game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. This series can go one or two different ways. Either the Dodgers win the series taking 3 of the 4 games and essentially take over first place, or the Diamondbacks win the series or sweep the series and somewhat bury the Dodgers and their hopes of playoff baseball. Dodger fans certainly want to see a good series and I imagine we will see a good series, more than likely it will have a playoff vibe to it.

For those of you that read my blog regularly, are you interested in hearing me do a  podcast with occasional guests? The podcast would not be limited to baseball although that will be the main focus. I’d like to talk about basketball, football and hockey as well as baseball. Basically, I need something to do when the baseball season ends! Please let me know if you are interested in listening to a podcast that is done by myself. Thank you and as always, let’s go Dodgers!