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Dodgers sweep Diamondbacks ahead of showdown with Braves

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LOS ANGELES — Maybe it’s time for the Dodgers to try picking on someone their own size.

The Dodgers completed a dismissive sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 7-0 victory on Wednesday night, sending them off 15 games back in the National League West tied with the San Francisco Giants for what passes for the Dodgers’ closest division pursuer.

The Dodgers outscored the Diamondbacks 23-5 and hit eight home runs in the three games. August came in like a lion for the Dodgers and is going out still roaring. With one day left in the month, the Dodgers have gone 24-4, the Los Angeles-era franchise record for a calendar month (one short of the overall franchise record).

It is the fourth consecutive season they have won at least 21 games in August with a winning percentage of .750 or better. According to OptaStats, only one other team in MLB history has had a .750 winning percentage or better in the same calendar month four years in a row (minimum 10 games played) – the Chicago White Stockings in June 1878 through 1881.

“It’s just good all-around baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the world his team inhabits right now. “I think a lot of times teams talk about when you have the hitting, you’re not pitching, and vice versa. But I think right now we’ve had both every night.”

Maybe it will take visitors from the east to slow the Dodgers as September arrives. In a matchup of the teams with the two best records in baseball, the Dodgers host the Atlanta Braves in a four-game series beginning Thursday night.

The Braves have had their own fun in August, going 20-8 including seven wins in their past eight games, with their own fat division cushion (13½ games over the Philadelphia Phillies).

“Yeah it’s going to be a fun series,” said Roberts, whose team took two of three in Atlanta in May. “Those guys have been the best team, the class of baseball, from the get-go. They can pitch. Their bullpen is solid. Their position players are as good as anybody in baseball. So it’s going to be a fun series.”

Wednesday’s win followed a familiar script – Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman do MVP things, others have their moments (Max Muncy and Jason Heyward this time) and the opponents can’t keep up.

Betts was on base three times in the first five innings on a pair of singles and a walk. It was Betts’ 18th multi-hit game in 27 games this month. The NL MVP frontrunner now (if it’s not still the Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr.) has hit a ridiculous .454 (49 for 108) in August.

Freeman followed Betts’ second single with a two-run home run, ending an 0-for-10 stretch emphatically with the 440-foot drive to right field in the third inning. An inning later, he added his 51st double of the season, one short of matching the franchise record set by Johnny Frederick in 1929.

Freeman has left his own vapor trail in August, hitting .375 (42 for 112) with 13 multi-hit games of his own.

Betts and Freeman both have at least 40 hits, 10 doubles and three stolen bases this month. The last teammates to do that in the same month were Charlie Gehringer and Gee Walker for the Detroit Tigers in August 1937 (via OptaStats again).

Heyward matched Freeman’s two-run homer in the third inning. Muncy drove in two with a double in the fourth inning and one with a single in the sixth. It was Muncy’s eighth consecutive game with an extra-base hit, one short of the franchise record.

“Just been able to stay more inside the ball,” Muncy said. “I’ve had a lot of balls to left-center. It just started in Cleveland after the off day. Things started clicking a little bit. Just kind of a different mindset out there.”

That mindset has allowed Muncy to go 13 for 36 with six doubles, two home runs and 11 RBIs in nine games since the off day – lifting his season batting average over .200 after spending most of the year in the subterranean territory below the “Mendoza Line.”

“Offensively in the box, he’s doing a great job of protecting the strike zone, like he does, but balls in the strike zone, I think he’s doing a better job of ending the at-bats,” Roberts said. “I think that he’s staying in his mechanics. He’s not over-swinging. He’s starting to use the whole field a little bit more and he still has the slug. When he’s in there, he’s a presence and I think he’s just overall becoming a more consistent hitter.”

All of that made starter Ryan Pepiot very comfortable. Pepiot went five scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and walking one, in the best start of his young career.

Ryan Yarbrough completed the six-hit shutout with four scoreless innings and allowed the rest of the bullpen a night off in anticipation of the series with the Braves.

“This will be a good series. Baseball-wise, a lot of people are looking forward to it,” Muncy said. “But for us, we just gotta go out there and play our game just like it’s any other game. They’re an extremely good team, but we can’t focus on who the team is. We have to focus on what we’re gonna do with our game plan. If we just go out there and execute, it doesn’t matter who is out there. Just play our game. Worry about playing ourselves and try to focus on that, and then we can feel pretty confident.”