LOS ANGELES — Unless that Cash Considerations fella turns into an All-Star, this is going to go down as one very lopsided trade.
Back in June, Trayce Thompson was putting up a .992 OPS at Triple-A with his second organization of the season and his ninth in the past five years. But somehow the dreadful Detroit Tigers had no use for him other than to send him to the Dodgers for cash.
Plucked from the obscurity of northern Ohio and returned to his native California, Thompson has flourished. He hit a three-run home run and drove in four runs off last year’s National League Cy Young Award winner, Corbin Burnes, as the Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-1, Tuesday night.
Thompson also drove in a run with a single after not being in the original starting lineup to face Burnes. He was a late add at DH when Gavin Lux was scratched due to a stiff neck.
In 45 games as a born-again Dodger, Thompson is batting .288 with 10 doubles, a triple, six home runs and 25 RBIs. Acquired mainly to hit left-handed pitching, Thompson has terrorized right-handers instead, batting .365 (23 for 63) against them with five of his six home runs and 19 of his 25 RBIs.
Thompson might have been Burnes’ biggest problem Tuesday. But he wasn’t his only one.
Facing the Dodgers in Milwaukee last week, Burnes held them scoreless for five innings before giving up three runs in the sixth.
The Dodgers picked up right where they left off. Mookie Betts led off the first inning with a double and scored on an RBI single by Freddie Freeman.
In the second, Burnes walked Joey Gallo and Cody Bellinger – a .192 hitter when you combine their achievements at the plate this season – to put two runners on with two outs for Thompson. He left a 2-and-2 cutter over the inner half of the plate and Thompson demolished it. It left his bat at 108.4 mph and landed 423 feet later in the left-field pavilion.
The Dodgers chased Burnes from the game in a three-run fourth inning that was extended when Betts reached base on a third-strike wild pitch. Thompson, Trea Turner and Freeman each drove in a run with an RBI single. Thompson’s was scorched through shortstop Willy Adames at 100.8 mph.
In the past three days, the Dodgers have faced the reigning Cy Young winner and the 2022 frontrunner (Miami’s Sandy Alcantara). They hung 13 runs on the pair, not allowing either to complete four innings, boosting Tony Gonsolin’s Cy chances in the process.
Gonsolin allowed one run on three hits in five innings against the Brewers on Tuesday, lowering his NL-best ERA to 2.10 before getting off work early.
Betts did his part to protect Gonsolin’s ERA with the defensive play of the game in the top of the second. He made a running, leaping catch of Luis Urias’ drive on the warning track in right field.
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