Doubling down on the Dodgers doubles record

Sep 28, 2022 - 5:11 AM

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Trea Turner hit a ball to left center field off Padres closer Josh Hader to open the ninth inning on Tuesday, the Dodgers’ National League-leading 313th double of the season to set a new team record in the 139th year of the franchise.

That’s one more double than the 2017 team, emblematic of the most doubles-hitting era in Dodgers history. Five of the top seven team doubles totals have come in the last nine seasons.

On a per game basis, this year’s team is hitting 2.03 doubles per game, which would also be a club record. That mark is held by the 1930 Brooklyn team, who hit 303 doubles in 154 games, 1.97 per game. To beat that record this year, the 2022 Dodgers need at least 319 doubles in 162 games. Just six more doubles over the final eight games.

The Dodgers have 155 doubles in 75 home games this year, and 158 doubles in 79 road contests.

Adding Freddie Freeman went a long way in bolstering the Dodgers double totals, as the first baseman leads the majors with 46 doubles, the fifth-highest total by a Dodger in a season. He’s three shy of matching Shawn Green’s Los Angeles Dodgers record for doubles in a season, set in 2003.

But Freeman was replacing — both as wearing uniform No. 5 and in the top third of the lineup, Corey Seager — who averaged 42 doubles per 162 games in seven seasons in Los Angeles.

Freeman added a lot, but he’s not alone.

The Dodgers have eight different players with at least 20 doubles, plus Gavin Lux sitting on 19. Just think, had Lux held up on second base for one of his league-leading seven triples, the Dodgers would already have nine 20-double hitters for the second time in franchise history, joining that prolific 2017 team.

They have six players with at least 25 doubles, tied for the most in franchise history, with Chris Taylor looming close behind with 24 doubles.

Eighteen different Dodgers have hit doubles this season, including two by rookie James Outman in only four games. Trayce Thompson, who has only been on the team for three months, has 13 doubles in 69 games. Only five Dodgers who have batted this season don’t have doubles. Eddy Alvarez batted the most out of that group, with 27 plate appearances.

Both Trea Turner (39) and Justin Turner (36) have career highs in doubles this season. Mookie Betts has 35 doubles to go with his career-best 35 home runs, joining Duke Snider (twice) and Babe Herman as the only Dodgers with 35 homers and 35 doubles in a season.

Betts is no stranger to two-baggers, hitting at least 40 doubles in each of his five full seasons with the Red Sox, averaging 43 doubles per year from 2015-19. Fenway Park played some role in those totals, with Betts hitting 135 doubles in 396 home games in Boston, compared to 94 doubles in 398 road games while with the Red Sox.

It comes as no surprise that the Red Sox lead the majors with 339 doubles this season, which would make 10 times leading at least the American League for Boston in the last 13 years. 178 of those Red Sox doubles this year have been hit at home, compared to 161 on the road.

Boston is the only team ahead this year of the Dodgers, who lead the National League in doubles, with 30 more than the Braves. The Dodgers haven’t led the NL in doubles since they were in Brooklyn, in 1955.

Los Angeles’ best doubles month this year was in May, with 71 two-baggers. That matched the 1930 Brooklyn team for most doubles in a month in team history, though Brooklyn did so in 35 games that July. This May, the Dodgers played 26 games. The Dodgers this year also hit 68 doubles in August.

The Dodgers just last week went three straight games without a double against the D-backs, but that was only the second time all year Los Angeles went more than one game without a double (also June 7-8 at the Chicago White Sox).

Freeman and Trea Turner each had streaks of four straight games with a double. The longest doubles streak in team history is six games, set by recent Dodgers Rewind subject Red Smith for Brooklyn in June 1913.

Merrill Kelly has been on the receiving end of eleven Dodgers doubles this season, more than any other pitcher. But that makes sense considering the D-backs right-hander lost all five starts against Los Angeles this year with an 8.25 ERA. It’s the most doubles allowed to the Dodgers in one season since Jhoulys Chacin of the Rockies in 2010. Since the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, the only two pitchers to allow more doubles to them in a season are Bob Gibson (1961) and Brian Lawrence (2004).

The 2022 Dodgers also hit eight doubles against the Giants’ Logan Webb in four starts, and eight doubles against Tyler Mahle — then of the Reds — in only two starts.

Unsurprisingly, the Dodgers’ four divisional opponents have allowed the most doubles to LA this year, topped by 44 against the Giants in 19 games. But outside the NL West, the team to allow the next-most doubles to the Dodgers is the Twins, with 18 two-baggers in four games.

The Dodgers have hit eight doubles in a game twice this season, first on May 10 in Pittsburgh (Justin Turner hit three) and again at home against the Twins on August 9 (Trea Turner hit two). That’s one shy of the franchise record for doubles in game, set by Brooklyn on June 4, 1939 against Pittsburgh at Ebbets Field.

That’s a lot of doubles, in a season full of them for the Dodgers.