As if the last month of Dodgers baseball has not been fun enough to watch, the team has come bursting out of the gates since the All-Star break with some of the most entertaining games of the season.
On Wednesday, the Dodgers completed their second sweep in a row, an extra innings 8-3 victory over Toronto.
Ricky Nolasco started the game off hot with 4.2 no-hit innings, but had himself in hot water when he walked two batters in the fifth inning. He then gave up his first hit of the game, a double to Brett Lawrie for two runs.
Nolasco was pulled with two outs in the sixth inning after 98 pitches, giving up two hits and two runs with four walks and five strikeouts.
The Dodgers scored eight runs on 16 hits, but were held scoreless from the fourth to the eighth innings. They put one run on the board in the second and third innings, but squandered plenty of opportunities throughout the game to take the lead in a 2-2 tie.
Just like Tuesday night, when the game seemed over with the Dodgers down to their last out, Andre Ethier smacked a liner to left-center field with Yasiel Puig on second base. Outfielder Colby Rasmus went to play the ball on a bounce, but the astroturf launched it over his head in one of those plays that seems to happen only to a team on a roll.
The outrageous play allowed Puig to score the tying run, sending the game into extra innings, where things just got out of hand.
In the 10th, with Juan Uribe on base, Mark Ellis hit a home run farther than any 36-year-old second basemen should be capable of. The rocket put LA up 5-3, but they were not done there.
Yasiel Puig smacked a solo shot, Gonazalez walked, Ramirez doubled, and Ethier brought both of them home on a double for a final score of 8-3.
The Dodgers have now scored 41 runs in four games, won six in a row, won 10 road games straight, and continue to surprise and impress with their late-inning heroics and big, big victories.
Overall, these games since the All-Star break have felt like the Dodgers are just oozing with good baseball karma. Maybe it's in return for all the injuries they had put up with to start the season.
They now head home to face the 58-44 Cinncinati Reds in what should be a very competitive series. Zach Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, and Hyun-Jin Ryu will be on the mound for the Dodgers in the three-game series.
