by Rowan Kavner
Thirty rounds after the Dodgers selected Dustin May, and 32 rounds after taking Will Smith, the Dodgers used their 33rd-round selection of the 2016 draft on an infielder from Central Michigan named Zach McKinstry.
Five years later, their picks from that draft look more and more prudent.
With their top selection of 2016, Gavin Lux, getting the night off Monday, McKinstry stepped in at second base and went 3-for-4 with three RBI. Smith homered for his second straight night. And May matched career highs in innings pitched (six) and strikeouts (eight) to help the Dodgers to their fourth straight win in a 10–3 drubbing of the Athletics.
After the Dodgers posted a .329 batting average with 18 extra-base hits and 26 runs over four games in Colorado, leaving the altitude at Coors Field didn’t present any issues for the Major League leaders in batting average (.332), on-base percentage (.430) and OPS (.947).
McKinstry and Max Muncy, who was facing his former team, each recorded three-hit nights. McKinstry, who’s 6-for-11 overall with an extra-base hit in each of his first four games this season, started the scoring Monday with a sacrifice fly in the second inning.
“He earned the opportunity to make this club, and he’s taking advantage of it,” said manager Dave Roberts.
Corey Seager followed two batters later with a bases-clearing double. Seager and McKinstry each knocked in three runs on the night. At the time of Seager’s extra-base hit, the Dodger shortstop had reached base 14 times in his first 18 plate appearances of the season. His 1.342 OPS ranks third on the team through five games, behind only McKinstry (1.591) and Smith (1.925).
“There are superstars right behind me like Mookie (Betts) and Seager,” McKinstry said. “I don’t really have to do too much.”
Through five games, only one opposing starter (Jon Gray) has gone more than four innings against the Dodger offense. The Dodgers chased Oakland starter Frankie Montas after 2 2/3 innings Monday, spotting May seven runs by the third inning.
May said he still needs to get better landing his breaking balls for strikes, but Monday night was the best his cutter has felt since the start of spring. Oakland batters whiffed nine times on the pitch. He spent the majority of the night bringing the heat with his two-seamer and four-seamer, which got a combined 18 called and swinging strikes.
His performance backed up the Dodgers’ decision to put him in the rotation to begin the year.
“I thought this Spring Training he really worked on the breaking ball, striking it, shortening it, but today it was really the fastball and hard,” Roberts said. “It was the fastball up, the cut fastball and the two-seamer. He just really commanded the top part of the zone tonight.”
The Dodgers continued tacking on late, scoring runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, including a solo shot from Justin Turner. It was the earliest he’s hit a home run in a season and the 500th RBI of his career.
Injury Updates:
The Dodgers did not leave their win unscathed. Both Chris Taylor and Cody Bellinger left the game and are considered day-to-day.
Taylor was hit in the left elbow by a 96 mph sinker. He stayed in to run but was removed after the inning. Roberts said X-rays were negative, but he dealt with numbness in his arm and soreness in his elbow.
Bellinger left the game in the ninth inning after being cleated in the back of the left calf in a footrace to first base on an infield single.
“It’s just more sore,” Roberts said. “It’s not an ankle thing. He made a comment that the ice he was getting hurts worse than the cleat marks. So he’s kind of with CT, day-to-day, and we’ll know more tomorrow morning.”
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