Dodgers' HR spree rolls on in rout of Texas

LOS ANGELES -- Pitchers young and old alike, the Dodgers will take you deep.
Los Angeles' June home run derby continued Tuesday night with blasts from Joc Pederson, Max Muncy and Yasiel Puig -- all off 45-year-old Bartolo Colon -- in a 12-5 Interleague series rout of the Rangers at Dodger Stadium.
Pederson lined a two-run homer in the second inning for his seventh home run in his last eight games, and later added a pair of doubles. Pederson had only one homer in his first 151 plate appearances this year. But in this eight-game stretch, Pederson is 13-for-26 with 11 runs, five doubles and 10 RBIs. On the season, he has eight homers and 28 RBIs.
"This energy, this confidence. Hitting is contagious," said Pederson. "It's a fun thing. Winning's fun."

Muncy launched a one-out towering solo shot to right field in the third inning, taking the team lead with 13. He's homered in four consecutive games and in his last 17 games at Dodger Stadium he has eight homers. During a career-high eight-game hitting streak, he's 12-for-28 with six homers, 11 RBIs and eight walks.
"I try not to think about it. It's hard not to," Muncy said of his torrid streak. "Games are a lot of fun right now. Everyone's feeling the momentum up and down the lineup."

With Justin Turner returning to third base after missing four starts with a sore left wrist, the Dodgers kept Muncy in the lineup with his first start of the year at second base.
Puig's home run, the longest of the trio at 421 feet, according to Statcast™, was a two-run shot in a seven-run fourth inning. He also doubled, and in 10 June games he's 15-for-36 with 10 runs, five doubles, three homers and nine RBIs.
The Dodgers have a National League-leading 85 home runs this year and have slugged 29 home runs in 10 games this month while scoring 83 runs and going 8-2. With the win, the Dodgers remained in second place in the NL West, three games behind Arizona.
"It's hard to explain homers," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. "They're taking good swings, having good at-bats. We're built on, sort of, slugging and guys that can take the walk. It's kind of playing out that way right now."

And it doesn't seem to matter who's pitching for the opposition, or for the Dodgers.
Colon, a former teammate of Roberts with the Indians, was matched up against Caleb Ferguson, who was making the second start of his big league career at age 21. Ferguson, who was 9 months old when Colon debuted in the Major Leagues, went four innings and 65 pitches before being removed, while Colon (3-4) left during the bottom of the fourth, charged with eight runs.
"He's still green," Roberts said of Ferguson, whose removal was decided when the score was 4-2. "The fastball command wasn't there. I appreciate the effort to throw the change, but it wasn't there, and the curve was spotty. He competes really well. It was growth from his first start [1 2/3 innings] to this one."

Through the fourth inning, all eight Dodgers position players had scored at least one run and six had RBIs.
Edward Paredes pitched the sixth inning and was credited with the win and Daniel Corcino pitched the final three innings to qualify for his first career save, even though he entered with a nine-run lead.
SOUND SMART
The previous Dodger to record a three-inning save was Josh Ravin last July 25 against the Twins.

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
The Dodgers dared left-handed hitter Joey Gallo to go the other way in the sixth inning Tuesday night, abandoning the left side of the infield and using five players on the outfield grass, but all Gallo did was strike out. Shortstop Chris Taylor went into left field, Matt Kemp slid over to left-center, Pederson to right-center and Puig went to the right-field corner, while second baseman Muncy was in shallow right field.
Left-handed reliever Paredes threw four sliders in the five-pitch at-bat and struck out Gallo trying to pull a 2-2 slider.

HE SAID IT
"You look at all the players on our roster, the guy that's probably grown the most in my opinion is Joc. He hasn't worried about the result and betting on that. He started slow this year, didn't have great spring, but to trust the work he's put in and it's showing itself right now and it's a credit to him and the coaches." -- Roberts

UP NEXT
Kenta Maeda will come off the disabled list to face Texas and Cole Hamels on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. PT in his first start since May 29. He has assured management that a strained right hip has healed enough to allow him to pitch deep into the game.