Funny thing about Howie Kendrick. He hits a ton of line drives and not a lot of home runs, yet he can thrive as a cleanup hitter in a lineup full of sluggers.
Kendrick batted cleanup Tuesday and drove in all three Dodgers runs. He batted cleanup 39 times last year for the Angels, a lineup featuring Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and six other guys who either matched or exceeded his home run total (7). When batting fourth for the 2014 Angels, Kendrick produced a .320/.366/.513 slash line — his best slash line at any spot in the order (he also hit first, fifth, sixth and seventh). So yeah, he’s done this before. Maybe we really shouldn’t be all that surprised when he does.
Before the game, I talked to Bob Baffert, who grew up a Dodgers fan in Arizona and now is the most famous horse trainer in the world.
The box score is here.