Two days without Shohei Ohtani’s bat in the starting lineup is a tough pill to swallow. But the Dodgers beat the Giants 4-0Wednesday even without his presence at the top of the batting order.
The Dodgers’ victory featured an early offensive push and back-to-back home runs, as Ohtani made his impact on the mound, holding the Giants scoreless through seven innings.
Third baseman Santiago Espinal, in the starting lineup for the first time in five days, produced the Dodgers’ first run, lifting a solo homer over the left-field wall. Then Mookie Betts, hitting leadoff in place of Ohtani, followed with a homer of his own.
It was just the second time this season that the Dodgers have hit back-to-back home runs.
The team originally planned to give Betts the day off Wednesday, easing him back into action in his first week back from the injured list (strained right oblique).
Ohtani’s absence in the batting order was one factor Roberts weighed when he decided to instead play Betts for a third straight game and push his rest day to Thursday. More important, Roberts said Betts also told him that he felt really good physically.
“I’m not going to just sit him down just because that’s a plan where it doesn’t make sense,” Roberts said, “where I think that going three in a row is not really pushing him considering how he feels.”
The Dodgers extended their lead in the fourth inning. Kyle Tucker hit his second double of the game, and Teoscar Hernández drove him in with a line-drive single to right field. Hernández later scored on Alex Call’s sacrifice fly in foul territory — a play Giants right fielder Jung Hoo Lee could have avoided by letting the ball drop.
Ohtani was the stopper on the mound that the Dodgers needed him to be after a four-game losing streak. He recorded eight strikeouts and all four hits that he allowed were singles.
Two of them came with one out in the seventh. But he got out of the inning with a double play on a long fly ball.
Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages tracked Drew Gilbert’s flyout to the warning track, as the Giants’ base runners failed to hold in case the ball was caught. Taking advantage of the base-running mistake, Pages started a relay to second base to end the inning and put the final touches on Ohtani’s start.
His season ERA improved to .082, leading all pitchers who have thrown at least 25 major-league innings this season.
Thursday will be a full recovery day for Ohtani, barring a pinch-hit opportunity.
Roberts was adamant Tuesday night that he didn’t think giving Ohtani Wednesday and Thursday off from hitting would cool his momentum at the plate.
“I thought [Tuesday] was a really good night,” Roberts said after Ohtani went two-for-four with a home run and a walk. “And so now to go out there, focus on pitching [Wednesday], get that recovery on Thursday, I think that he can hopefully take that momentum from tonight and then be building on that through Anaheim and San Diego.”
It was his first home run in over two weeks and second multi-hit game in six games, as he showed potential signs of an offensive turnaround. But Roberts said he wasn’t tempted to have Ohtani hit Wednesday.
“You just can’t be reactive over one game,” Roberts said. “You really can’t. … I’ve talked about the workload, and I’ve talked to him at length about it. It’s tough on days he pitches. I don’t think it’s fair to the player just to assume, he threw out a couple knocks so he should be in there tomorrow. I don’t like playing that game.”
Roberts had also talked with Ohtani before Tuesday’s game about giving him the next two off from hitting, and he didn’t want to pull a “bait and switch.”
“We were both good with it,” Roberts said.
He theorized that knowing he was going to be out of the batting order the next two days could have freed up Ohtani, contributing to his turnaround at the plate.
“You just never know,” Roberts said.
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