When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said earlier this week that the best was yet to come, his expectations were centered on the offense.
In the Dodgers’ 10-4 rout of the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, that better version of the offense was on display, putting together a pair of three-run rallies in back-to-back innings to take pressure off the pitching staff.
Before that breakout started in the fifth inning, it was a back-and-forth game.
Dodgers left-handed starting pitcher Tarik Skubal pitched only five innings, tied for his shortest start with the Dodgers. And he surrendered four runs, the worst mark of his Dodgers tenure.
Entering the game, Skubal appeared to be peaking. His last two starts, both against the Reds, were some of his most efficient.
That efficiency, however, regressed against the Giants (64-91).
Though he got through the first two innings without giving up a run — thanks in part to a diving catch by right fielder Kyle Tucker made in the gap to end the first — he issued two-out walks in each.
The Dodgers’ offense used that time to mount a lead. Leadoff hitter Mookie Betts, who finished the day with three doubles and a single, hit the first of those doubles in his first at-bat, and Max Muncy authored his own to drive in the first run.
The next inning, rookie Josue De Paula’s walk, and singles from Alex Freeland and Betts combined to push in another run.
Then Skubal began to struggle. With a runner on second and one out, he pitched to a full count against designated hitter Victor Bericoto. Skubal missed down the middle with a fastball, and Bericoto sent it 425 feet to center field. It landed on the netting on the other side of the wall to tie the score.
The Dodgers’ offense, coming alive in September, struck back in the third. Catcher Will Smith hit his second home run in as many nights, launching the second pitch of the frame into left-field stands.
The Giants took a different approach to tie the score for a second time. After back-to-back singles, they used back-to-back sacrifice bunts to advance the runners and score another run.
Then the two teams traded runs again. Betts put the Dodgers (95-60) up with an RBI double in the fourth. Skubal gave up back-to-back doubles in the fifth.
That marked both the end of Skubal’s start and the beginning of the Dodgers’ offensive onslaught.
The Dodgers brought seven batters to the plate in the fifth, and all but one reached base. Tommy Edman hit a two-run single. And pinch-hitting Miguel Rojas almost matched him, but Giants left fielder Turner Hill made a perfect throw to nab Edman in a close play at home to end the inning.
Betts’ and Smith’s bats stayed hot to open the sixth with a leadoff double and one-out RBI single, respectively. The Dodgers took advantage of the Giants’ sloppy infield play to load the bases for De Paula, who lined a two-run single into shallow center field.
Those were the kinds of stifling rallies that had defined the Dodgers offense earlier in the season, when they were scoring regularly in double digits.
The Dodgers’ 15 hits Saturday were their most in a game since July 2 against the San Diego Padres, and just two shy of their season high.
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