The Dodgers weren’t as active at the trade deadline as they had been in years past, and the early results weren’t inspiring to say the least.
Brock Stewart’s reunion has lasted just four appearances, suffering a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Aug. 4 before being placed on the 15-day IL due to right shoulder inflammation. Alex Call, whom the Dodgers received from the Washington Nationals at the deadline, was hitting just .174 as a with his new team across 28 plate appearances entering Tuesday.
He showed why the Dodgers had such high interest in him on Tuesday, as he finished a triple shy of the cycle while collecting four hits in the Dodgers’ 11-4 win over the Colorado Rockies.
Call spoke with Kirsten Watson of SportsNet LA about his four-hit performance— the second of his career— and the mindset he had during his final two at-bats, where his chances at a cycle were in jeopardy.
“I was just trying to get on base. It’s tough when everybody else is yelling ‘If you hit the ball, you better not stop running.’ It’s a special thing to even be in that situation. I didn’t do it tonight, but maybe, in the future.”
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The most glaring issue for the Dodgers during Monday’s defeat to Colorado was their outfield defense, as a misplayed pop up by Teoscar Hernández in the bottom of the ninth inning allowed the eventual game-winning run to reach scoring position.
While Hernández has a respectable .990 fielding percentage, second among qualified right fielders this year, his -9 outs above average rank in the first percentile, ranking third to last among all qualified right fielders. His -9 fielding run value and -3 defensive runs saves also rank third to last among all qualified right fielders.
The topic of Mookie Betts moving back to right field to aid a struggling defense wasn’t included in Dave Roberts’ meeting with the Dodger shortstop, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, and Hernández will continue to patrol right field.
“We have not talked about right field at all,” Roberts said. “He was saying a lot of things when he was mired in his struggles that I didn’t want to hear, so I don’t know. He might have. But no, we haven’t talked about it.”
Hernández’s defense did improve in Tuesday’s win, and as Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times notes, Dave Roberts is confident in Hernández’s defensive capabilities in right field.
“There’s been times that he’s played a formidable right field,” he said. “I think he’s going to get back to that. I really do.”
