Dave Roberts sought the best of both worlds from his slumping Dodgers offense Sunday.
More competitive at-bats, a more disciplined two-strike approach, and a renewed team-first mindset at the plate on the one hand.
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But also, amid a two-month funk that dropped them to second place in the National League West, to not abandon the slugging prowess that makes them who they are.
“I want my cake, and [to] eat it as well,” the Dodgers manager quipped.
“I’d be shocked,” he added, “if we don’t see a different offensive output from here forward, starting today.”
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Indeed, everything the Dodgers were missing in their first two games against the San Diego Padres this weekend — when they combined for just two runs and five hits to relinquish their place atop the division standings — came roaring suddenly back when the club needed it most.
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In a sweep-evading 8-2 win over the Padres at Petco Park on Sunday, the Dodgers got back to working better at-bats, manufacturing consistent baserunners, then pouncing on mistakes with their lineup’s trademark pop.
The biggest swings came in a five-run seventh inning, when Dalton Rushing broke a 2-2 tie with a three-run home run to right and Freddie Freeman hit his second long ball of the day to put the score out of reach.
But all along, they displayed the progress Roberts had promised in his pregame address with reporters; following up two of their worst offensive displays of the season, with a nine-hit, four-walk, eight -run outburst that drew them back into a first-place tie with the Padres (74-57).
Freddie Freeman, right, is congratulated by third base coach Dino Ebel after hitting a home run in the sixth inning Sunday. (Derrick Tuskan / Associated Press)
In their losses on Friday and Saturday, the Dodgers’ problems had been simple. They didn’t adjust to a Padres pitching staff that attacked them carefully. They didn’t grind with two strikes, or shorten up their swings, or do enough little things to unlock their long-scuffling offense (which led the majors in scoring through June, but had ranked 24th in the two months since).
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“We haven’t really been in-sync,” Roberts said. “It’s been disjointed a lot, as far as the offense.”
When asked if that meant his team needed to adopt more of a small-ball mentality, however, Roberts pushed back.
“I think it’s a fair question,” he said. “But I couldn’t disagree more.”
After all, his team is still stocked full of All-Stars, MVPs and future Hall of Famers. At their core, they are a team built to bludgeon opponents — not slap singles and drop down sacrifice bunts.
“Slugging is still a part of it,” he said. “I definitely don’t want guys to hit like I did.”
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Around the margins, though, there were ways they could better position themselves to do that. Such as trying to work better counts, stay alive with two strikes when needed, and striking a better balance between patience and aggression.
“When you can kind of play, knowing you have people around you, where your goal is just to win — versus, my goal is just to be good myself individually, that’s pressure,” he said. “But when you feel like [you are doing] whatever little thing I can do to help a team, an offensive unit, that’s freeing. So that was some of the conversations that I’ve had with the guys, trying to relay that message.”
The change started in the first inning, with the Dodgers putting Padres starter Nick Pivetta under immediate stress.
Shohei Ohtani drew a five-pitch leadoff walk. Mookie Betts shortened up his swing on an 0-and-2 slider to line a single up the middle. Freddie Freeman loaded the bases by grinding out a full-count free pass.
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It was a string of small victories that provided cleanup hitter Teoscar Hernández the perfect chance to slug.
Hernández tried to, getting a fastball over the plate in a 3-and-1 count and launching a deep flyball that seemed destined to be a grand slam. The drive, however, hung up just enough for Ramón Laureano to rob it at the wall.
The sacrifice fly brought in the Dodgers’ only run of the inning — giving them a 1-0 lead that would soon be erased on Elias Díaz’s two-run homer in the third off Yoshinobu Yamamoto (the only runs he gave up in a six-inning start).
Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers against the Padres in the first inning Sunday. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
But it set the tone for a flurry of offense that would follow later in the afternoon, when a weekend of non-existent offense finally started to turn.
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In the sixth, Freeman hit his first home run, crushing another center-cut fastball from Pivetta to right-center for a tying blast.
Then, against Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada in the seventh, the club put all the pieces together in a five-run rally.
Andy Pages rolled a single through the left side to lead off. Michael Conforto came up next, fouled off a full-count slider, then took a borderline fastball at the top of the zone for a stress-inducing walk.
Miguel Rojas couldn’t get a bunt down after that, eventually swinging away for a flyout to center.
But, in what was easily his best moment of a trying rookie season, Rushing delivered the decisive blow seven pitches later — fouling off his own two-strike slider before clobbering another to right for a go-ahead three-run shot.
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Freeman tacked on two more insurance runs before the inning was through, landing his second long ball of the day into the Petco Porch down the right-field line. Ohtani got in on the action in the ninth, belting his 45th homer to right to put the game — and another weekend of offensive frustration — to bed.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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