Game 28: Yasmani Grandal plays an extremely complete game in a 14-4 victory.

Yasmani Grandal

Yasmani Grandal hit a three-run home run in the eighth and ninth innings Thursday in the Dodgers’ 14-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. (Associated Press photo)

Just landed in Denver. Travel days like this usually don’t allow a lot of time for postgame reflection. I have a burning leftover quote from the Dodgers’ 14-4 win — a game that reflected the 2015 club’s burgeoning identity. (The box score is here.)

Yasmani Grandal rightfully got attention today for his 4-for-4, 8-RBI, two-homer game. Aaron Gleeman of NBCsports.com had some time to reflect on those numbers and came up with these factoids:

– He’s the first catcher with eight RBIs in a game since J.R. Towles of the Astros in 2007.

– He’s the first catcher with two home runs and eight RBIs in a game since Ivan Rodriguez of the Rangers in 1999.

– He’s the first catcher with two home runs, eight RBIs, and six times on base in a game since Walker Cooper of the Reds in 1949.

Grandal did more than crush the ball today. He talked after the game at length about catching Carlos Frias‘ third win of the season and was about as insightful as you’ll hear a baseball player get about what goes into that job. Here’s what Grandal said, unedited, when I asked him about Frias’ rocky fourth inning when the Brewers scored two runs:

(Gerardo) Parra comes up with a man on second and the first thing (Frias) wants to do is, ‘let’s drop a curveball here.’ Parra is a veteran in this league. We’ve been going soft on him, getting him soft, and all of a sudden he wants to get him soft. Maybe I should’ve stepped in and said ‘I’ve been playing against this guy for four years now — let’s do this’ but I want him to learn and understand. Did I think the curveball was the right pitch to throw? Probably not, but I’m going to go with whatever he thinks in his mind is best. He’s going to give me his best pitch right there. Moving forward, we talked in the dugout, and he was that guy — we should’ve probably gone with his fastball. Next time I’m sure we’ll probably go with that. [Parra singled, tying the game 3-2.] The scoreboard definitely allows you to do that. It wasn’t only him. A couple times there to Scooter (Gennett), instead of beating him with a fastball I called a changeup. And luckily for me (Frias) wants to throw whatever I’m calling so he went with it. It was a pretty good changeup but it was a base hit. We should’ve just stayed hard. Those are just things where we’re going to learn off each other, start getting on the same page. But once we are on the same page, he’s unhittable.

So yeah, while Grandal was driving in eight runs today he was basically coaching a 25-year-old rookie through his fourth major league start. Impressive stuff.

The Padres (15-15) lost late Thursday, so the Dodgers (18-10) enjoy a four-game lead in the NL West. No other team in the division is above .500.

Today’s notebook focused on Joc Pederson‘s unusual hitting profile for a leadoff hitter.

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.