{"id":160307,"date":"2025-08-20T05:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T05:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/160307\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T05:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T05:33:10","slug":"alex-call-has-best-game-as-a-dodger-in-rout-of-rockies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/160307\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Call has best game as a Dodger in rout of Rockies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DENVER\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Mookie Betts<\/a> was the first Dodgers position player out on the field Tuesday, walking to a spot near the third-base foul line and kneeling on a mat before a coach, who began hitting soft ground balls to his right and left.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a drill Betts does regularly to improve his defense. Betts\u2019 defense, however, really isn\u2019t a problem for the Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A six-time Gold Glove winner in right field, Betts moved to shortstop full-time this season, turning his old position over to Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez. And his defense has been a problem. But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he isn\u2019t planning any changes to his lineup for the time being.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we playing our best defensive lineup? No,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBut I would say there\u2019s very few teams in the big leagues playing their best defensive lineup every night. Even in a postseason race<\/a>, you\u2019ve still got to score.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are definitely in a postseason race and Hern\u00e1ndez absolutely helps them score, ranking second on the team in home runs (20) and RBIs (75) after going two for five with a run and an RBI in Tuesday\u2019s 11-4 rout<\/a> of the Colorado Rockies. He also made two nice running catches.<\/p>\n

But then the Dodgers didn\u2019t need much defense Tuesday, pounding out 18 hits with every player in the lineup reaching base as least once. Newcomer Alex Call led the way with a career-high four hits, including a home run and a double, scoring three runs and driving in two others while falling a triple shy of the cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking about it. I was really just trying to get on base another time,\u201d Call, who struck out in his final at-bat in the eighth, said of the cycle. \u201cBut everybody else in the dugout was like, \u2018if you hit this ball, you better keep running.\u2019 It would have been fun to find a gap and see what would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The homer, a 453-foot blast in the second, was the longest by a Dodger this season. Yet Call still managed to get the ball back as a souvenir.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually had some some friends in the stands that flew out from Wisconsin, and they tracked down the ball for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The homer helped Call break out of terrible slump. He entered the game hitting .174 since coming over from Washington at the trade deadline, which wasn\u2019t the kind of introduction he had hoped to have with this new team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to make a good impression. But I think you make a good impression by just showing how you work and showing how you play the game and just trusting in yourself to do what you do,\u201d he said. \u201cI would tell myself, \u2018I\u2019m just calibrating.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of moving parts, a lot of new things going on. New coaches, new teammates, new situation, new city. You can go on. So it\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Betts and Miguel Rojas joined Hern\u00e1ndez and Call with multiple hits for the Dodgers, who scored eight of their 11 runs with two outs.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, really pleased with tonight,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cYou saw a different ballclub tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

And a different Call as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly a big adjustment, especially when you walk into a clubhouse like ours,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cComing from the Nationals, a bunch of young players, and you see our ballclub in contention and trying to kind of figure out where you where you stand, right? He\u2019s likable the way he plays, practices, and it was good to see him have some success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers led 7-0 before the Rockies had their second baserunner, with one of those runs coming on Shohei Ohtani\u2019s 44th home run of the season. That made it easy for starter Emmet Sheehan (4-2), who matched a career high by going six innings, striking out a season-best seven batters to earn the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just got on the board early,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cWhen you score runs, you want to keep it going as an offense.<\/p>\n

\u201c[But] I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s going to think about how good we did today, tomorrow. Every day is a new day. We\u2019ll go out there and give it all again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yates makes rehab appearance<\/p>\n

Reliever Kirby Yates walked one and struck out one in a one-inning rehab appearance for Oklahoma City on Tuesday. He threw 21 pitches, 13 for strikes. Yates went on the injured list Aug. 1 with lower back pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Mookie Betts was the first Dodgers position player out on the field Tuesday, walking to a spot near…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":160308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[69426,1582,276,262,2442,92972,92976,92973,6595,1910,5949,2961,224,5337,32075,92975,92974,20418,5950,5957],"class_list":{"0":"post-160307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-alex-call","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-drill-betts","14":"tag-few-team","15":"tag-field-tuesday","16":"tag-freddie-freeman","17":"tag-game","18":"tag-home-run","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-miguel-rojas","23":"tag-old-position","24":"tag-right-field","25":"tag-rockies","26":"tag-season","27":"tag-teoscar-hernandez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115059464883889650","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}