Opposing pitching staffs have appeared to find a hole. Since July 1, no team in baseball has seen a higher percentage of fastballs than the Dodgers have (58.7 percent). The Dodgers have produced a .693 OPS against those pitches in that span, including the fourth-worst on-base percentage (.310) and fifth-worst slugging percentage (.383) in those spots.
“It never feels good to be bullied,” manager Dave Roberts said Monday at Dodger Stadium. “And to think teams go after us more than any other team with the fastball, that’s bothersome. That would bother me. How do you do it? You’ve got to look in your zone and get the bat head to it.
“We’ve scored runs — a lot of runs, fourth in baseball — but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The story is being the best version of ourselves, and that’s hitting the fastball, it’s making adjustments in at-bats, situationally, all of it. It’s something I hope our guys take personally. We shouldn’t get bullied.”
Including starting pitcher Noah Cameron, Royals pitchers only threw the Dodgers 23 four-seam fastballs on Monday. Max Muncy’s three-run double in the sixth inning was off a fastball, as was Shohei Ohtani’s single in the seventh inning to set up the winning run.