LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Justin Turner #10 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts as he is picked off third base to end the third inning against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Los Angeles starting pitcher Caleb Ferguson throws against the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Los Angeles starting pitcher Caleb Ferguson throws to a Texas Rangers batter during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Bartolo Colon throws to a Los Angeles Dodgers batter during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig swings for an RBI double during the second inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Fans watch as Texas Rangers’ Delino DeShields misses an RBI double hit by Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig during the second inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Texas Rangers’ Delino DeShields can’t catch a double hit by Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig during the second inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Texas Rangers’ Joey Gallo, right, chases a double hit by Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig as Delino DeShields tumbles after missing the ball during the second inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Yasiel Puig #66 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts to his RBI double to take a 1-0 lead over the Texas Rangers during the second inning at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers watches his two run homerun to take a 3-0 lead over the Texas Rangers during the second inning at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Joc Pederson hits a two-run home run during the second inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Joc Pederson watches his two-run home run during the second inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts to his two run homerun to take a 3-0 lead over the Texas Rangers during the second inning at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Joc Pederson celebrates his two-run home run during the second inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates his two run homerun with Yasiel Puig #66 to take a 3-0 lead over the Texas Rangers during the second inning at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Bartolo Colon walks through the dugout before the team’s baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Texas Rangers’ Shin-Soo Choo, of South Korea, is greeted by teammates after he scored on a single by Adrian Beltre against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the third inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Los Angeles starting pitcher Caleb Ferguson wipes his face after walking Texas Rangers’ Robinson Chirinos during the second inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Caleb Ferguson #64 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after allowing his second walk of the second inning against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Bartolo Colon throws to a Los Angeles Dodgers batter during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Max Muncy #13 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts to his strikeout during the first inning against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Bartolo Colon tosses the new ball after giving up a home run to Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Muncy, background right, during the third inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Bartolo Colon tosses the ball after giving up an RBI single to Los Angeles Dodgers’ Chris Taylor during the fourth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Muncy, left, celebrates his home run with Matt Kemp during the third inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Flanked by Texas Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos, second from left, and Ronald Guzman, starting pitcher Bartolo Colon, center, hands the ball to manager Jeff Banister during the fourth inning of the team’s baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Yasiel Puig #66 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts to his two run homerun to take a 6-2 lead over the Texas Rangers during the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig celebrates his two-run home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Matt Kemp, left, and Cody Bellinger shake hands after they scored on a single by Yasmani Grandal during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Cody Bellinger #35 and Matt Kemp #27 celebrate their runs from a Yasmani Grandal #9 single, in front of Robinson Chirinos #61 of the Texas Rangers, to take a 11-2 lead over the Texas Rangers during the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Cody Bellinger #35 and Matt Kemp #27 celebrate their runs from a Yasmani Grandal #9 single to take a 11-2 lead over the Texas Rangers during the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Yimi Garcia #63 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches in relief during the fifth inning against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Yimi Garcia #63 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after allowing a solo homerun to Shin-Soo Choo #17 of the Texas Rangers during the fifth inning against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Daniel Corcino #56 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts to his pitch during a 12-5 win over the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Daniel Corcino #56 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates a 12-5 win over the Texas Rangers with Yasmani Grandal #9 at Dodger Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
The Dodgers’ Chris Taylor, left, and Joc Pederson celebrate their team’s 12-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES — Respect your elders. But hammer his fastball.
The Dodgers found the senior slinging of 45-year-old Bartolo Colon to their liking, pounding him for eight runs on nine hits, including three more home runs, in the first four innings of a 12-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night.
The win was the Dodgers’ eighth in their last 10 games – a stretch during which they have identified their starting pitcher each day like game shows call contestants out of the audience – and 18 of their past 24.
“That ‘hitting-is-contagious’ thing is real,” said Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger, who was on base four times including an RBI double in a seven-run fourth inning. “We have a really deep lineup. I wouldn’t want to face us.
“I think winning is contagious too. We finally got that monkey off our back.”
That monkey was sitting comfortably when the Dodgers bottomed out 10 games under .500 (16-26) in mid-May. Since then, they have outhomered their opponents 46-19 and experienced a real June boom. The Dodgers lead all of MLB this month in nearly every offensive category, including runs scored (84 in 10 games) and home runs (29).
Joc Pederson, Max Muncy and Yasiel Puig each homered in Tuesday’s win. Pederson (7) and Muncy (6) lead MLB in home runs this month.
“It’s hard to explain homers. But, gosh, you see what Joc’s done this month, Max has done essentially all year,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think obviously they’re elevating the baseball, squaring it up, taking good swings, having good at-bats. I think across the board. Even the ability to use the opposite-field gap, take a walk, hit a line drive – I just think we’re taking a lot of good swings, grinding at-bats.
“We’re built sort of on slugging, guys who can take the walk, identify strike from ball and it’s kind of playing out that way right now.”
It is. But no one expected it to play out with Muncy leading the team in home runs. But his second-inning solo launch off Colon was his team-high 13th – despite not joining the major-league club until mid-April and bringing with him a major-league resume’ that included all of five home runs in 215 previous big-league at-bats.
“A grinder, a guy who is all in and will do whatever it takes for us to win,” Roberts said of his expectations when Muncy arrived from Triple-A on April 17. “I didn’t expect to see the consistent slug and the ability to barrel baseballs. This guy, he knows where the barrel’s at.
“I just didn’t appreciate it. I didn’t know the player. In spring training, obviously it was a small sample. But the more you see him … there’s a lot to like.”
There’s a lot to see of Colon, too and he has become the Don Quixote, assaulting the windmills of age – and fitness – in the image of a beer-guzzling fan who somehow found his way onto the field. Tuesday, he was matched against an opposing starting pitcher who was nine months old when Colon made his major-league debut. In the home dugout, the manger was a teammate from another century.
Colon has remarkably held back the hands of time, throwing his fastball 80 percent of the time even though it has lost 5 mph since he and Roberts were Cleveland Indians together. But these Dodgers feast on fastballs the way Colon … well, appears to have feasted on a lot of things over the years.
They put up three runs in the second inning on a walk to Bellinger, a two-out double just short of clearing the fence by Puig and a two-run home run by Pederson.
For Pederson, it was one of seven home runs in his last 26 plate appearances after he hit just one home run in his first 151 trips to the plate this season.
The Dodgers put the game away with a seven-run fourth inning that included a two-run home run by Puig – who had no home runs in his first 100 at-bats this season but now has eight in his last 77 at-bats. Yasmani Grandal drove in two runs with a single, Bellinger one with his double.
The smoke billowing from the Rangers’ team ERA provided cover for Ferguson, who looked at least somewhat more at ease in his second big-league start. Ferguson lasted only 1-2/3 innings in his debut last week. This time, he was only asked to go four and did that ably enough before Roberts let the bullpen coast to the finish.
“Caleb was better today,” Roberts said, non-committal when asked if Ferguson will remain in the Dodgers’ needy rotation. “I think with Caleb – he’s still green. He’s still learning the league and learning himself.
“It’s in there. Caleb can pitch. He competes really well.”
"The player that's grown the most, in my opinion, is Joc." Dave Roberts talks about the recent offensive surge following a 12-5 #Dodgers win over Texas. pic.twitter.com/72rHClFUta
