SAN FRANCISCO — Teoscar Hernández pumped his fist. Ben Rortvedt let out a scream. Mookie Betts put some oomph on the end of the Dodgers’ arm-waving, hip-shaking, hit celebration.
After struggling for so long in high-leverage situations, the team’s offense finally had reason to celebrate.
For weeks now, the Dodgers have technically been in a tight division race.
The real battle, however, has often been with themselves.
At a time of the year typically dedicated to scoreboard watching and monitoring the standings, the team had instead been preoccupied by its own inconsistent play. Chief among their recent problems: Capitalizing on scoring opportunities.
In a 13-7 defeat of the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, they finally vanquished those demons.
After trailing by three runs early, and reaching rock bottom again after leaving the bases loaded with no outs in the second inning, the Dodgers mounted the kind of rally that had so often been missing during their lackluster second half of the season, scoring six runs in the top of the fifth inning to key what felt like a statement win.
Early in Saturday’s game, the Dodgers had honed a sound approach. They stressed Giants ace Logan Webb. They stayed alive in two-strike counts. They worked long at-bats and put runners on base.
The missing ingredient, as usual, had been the big hits needed to build a big inning. Then, in the top of the fifth, it all so suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped.
After a walk from Betts, a single from Freddie Freeman and a walk from Max Muncy, Hernández came to plate fresh off his RBI double in the Dodgers’ two-run third; a much-needed rally that, when combined with Shohei Ohtani’s season-long 454-foot home run, had trimmed an early 4-1 deficit back down to one.
Hernández quickly fell behind to newly inserted Giants reliever José Buttó, taking a first-pitch fastball before fanning on a slider out of the zone. But after laying off another slider in the dirt, Hernández got a mistake, with Buttó leaving a fastball up and over the plate. Hernández lined it to the gap, where center fielder Luis Matos struggled to get a bead. It dropped in under Matos’ diving attempt, rolling past him for a two-run double that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.
From there, the floodgates burst open. Michael Conforto lifted a sacrifice fly to right. Ben Rorvedt lined another two-run double to left-center. Betts bounced a run-scoring single up the middle.
By the time the side was retired, 11 Dodgers had come to the plate. Eight had reached safely. Six had come around to score.
An exorcism and an exhale. A sigh of relief for the Dodgers’ long-scuffling offense.
And though the game had more twists and turns, the club held on to even this weekend’s showcase rivalry series.
Over their 26-33 stretch since July 4, the Dodgers had lost so many games like this one. They seemed left for dead after Clayton Kershaw gave up four runs in the bottom of the first, immediately negating Freeman’s RBI line-drive single in the first. They appeared back on the ropes when, in the half-inning after their six-run outburst, Kirby Yates gave back three runs to let the Giants make the score 9-7.
But on this night, every moment of adversity was met with an answer.
Ohtani christened his third-inning home run with a bat flip that energized the dugout. The Dodgers responded to Yates’ latest meltdown with a three-spot in the top of the sixth, punctuated by a two-run double from Rojas. And outside of Yates, the bullpen finally held up, with rookie right-hander Edgardo Henriquez striking out the side in the fourth inning, and rookie left-hander Justin Wrobleski calming the waters with 2⅓ innings between the fifth and seventh.
Even on a day that Will Smith was placed on the injured list (finally being shelved after battling a bone bruise on his hand for the last 10 days) and Muncy left the game early after taking a pitch to the head (though he seemed to be OK, and was likely removed primarily as a defensive replacement), the Dodgers didn’t wither.
Instead, their lineup finally produced as expected, going seven for 15 with runners in scoring position, producing 11 of their 23 combined hits and walks with two strikes, and fueling a win that keeps the team 2½ games up in the National League West standings — all while helping ease concerns about their recently inconsistent play.
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