During their weeks-long slump as an offense, the Dodgers’ primary problems were simple.
They weren’t slugging the ball, and they weren’t capitalizing on situational opportunities.
In a 4-0 win over the Giants on Wednesday, they finally found a way to do both.
On a night Shohei Ohtani continued his dominant start to the season as a pitcher –– spinning seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts to lower his ERA to 0.82 –– the Dodgers’ Ohtani-less lineup found a way to supply him with plenty of support.
In the third inning, Santiago Espinal and Mookie Betts hit back-to-back home runs, marking just the second time this year the Dodgers had gone deep in consecutive at-bats.
Then, in the fourth, they doubled the lead with a couple of manufactured runs, getting an RBI single from Teoscar Hernández and a sacrifice fly from Alex Call.
It wasn’t exactly a breakout performance from the Dodgers’ offense, which was the primary culprit behind the team’s 9-14 skid entering Wednesday.
But it didn’t need to be given the way Ohtani pitched, with the two-way star turning in his best performance on the mound in a season that has included nothing but gems (he has gone at least six innings, and given up no more than two earned runs in all seven outings this year).
At a bare minimum, the Dodgers (25-18) avoided what would have been a season-long five-game losing streak, snapping their second four-game skid in the last two weeks with the kind of solid all-around performance that has evaded them too often lately.
The team is still in second place in the National League West, a half-game behind the San Diego Padres.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
