A gentle stream of hits and walks and high quality at-bats didn’t translate into a large quantity of runs for the Dodgers on Saturday night time, however when mixed with a powerful Yoshinobu Yamamoto begin and some stout reduction, it was sufficient for a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies in entrance of 50,182 at Dodger Stadium.
A struggling Dodgers offense racked up 11 hits, together with three by Andy Pages and two every by Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández, and 4 walks however was unable to construct greater than a three-run cushion.
Thanks to Yamamoto and relievers Daniel Hudson, Blake Treinen and Evan Phillips, the Dodgers didn’t must. Yamamoto navigated by way of heavy site visitors to finish six innings, giving up one run and seven hits, hanging out seven and strolling one to enhance to 6-2 with a 3.32 ERA in 12 begins.
“The starting pitchers are dealing right now, keeping us in the game, giving us the opportunity to score runs so we can get back in the game and win,” Hernández mentioned. “We’re not going to put 10 runs on the board every day, but we try to maximize every single thing to make our lead bigger.”
Yamamoto gave up his solely run after a minor wardrobe malfunction — a damaged shoelace that he returned to the dugout to switch — brought on a delay earlier than the beginning of the second inning. Brendan Rodgers led off with a double, took third on Elehuris Montero’s groundout to second and scored on Brenton Doyle’s sacrifice fly to proper area.
Dodgers beginning pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws a pitch in the primary inning towards the Colorado Rockies.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But that was all of the Rockies would muster towards Yamamoto, who stranded two runners in every of the primary, third and sixth innings and, together with his season-high a hundred and first pitch of the night time, bought Montero to floor out to shortstop with runners on second and third to finish the sixth, preserving a 4-1 lead.
Hudson retired the aspect in order in the seventh, Treinen gave up two hits in a scoreless eighth and Phillips, making his first look since May 3 after lacking 4 weeks due to a right-hamstring pressure, retired the aspect in order in the ninth for the save.
The Dodgers scored twice in the second for a 2-1 lead, the primary run coming when the Rockies dedicated two errors on the identical play and the second on Pages two-out single and Jason Heyward’s RBI double to right-center.
Pages singled with two outs in the fourth, Heyward walked, and Kiké Hernández hit an RBI single to left-center for a 3-1 lead. Freeman tripled into the left-field nook and scored on Will Smith’s RBI double to left for a 4-1 lead in the fifth.
“Up and down the lineup, we saw good productive at-bats,” Roberts mentioned. “It seemed like we took better at-bats with two strikes, used the big part of the field, had [Rockies starter Cal] Quantrill on the ropes and got into their bullpen, which was good to see.”
The Dodgers have been an offensive power for seven weeks, batting .263 with a .792 on-base-plus-slugging proportion and averaging 5.4 runs by way of May 14, a stretch in which they went 29-15. But in their subsequent 15 video games by way of Friday night time, they hit .230 with a .672 OPS and averaged 3.5 runs, going 7-8 in that span.
Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freeman and Smith have manned the primary 4 spots in the lineup all season, however with the group in an prolonged funk, supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned he was contemplating tinkering with the alignment.
“I’ve thought about potentially splitting up the two lefties,” Roberts mentioned earlier than the sport, alluding to Ohtani and Freeman. “Not against right-handed [starters], but maybe against lefties.”
If Roberts flip-flopped Freeman and Smith, the Dodgers would go right-left-right-left-right in the primary 5 spots, with Teoscar Hernández batting fifth. That would give them a extra balanced lineup in basic and depart the highest of the order much less susceptible to close down left-handed relievers in the later innings.
Colorado Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar tags out Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani in the course of the third inning Saturday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Roberts mentioned he gained’t make that change towards Austin Gomber on Sunday as a result of the Rockies left-hander is “a neutral guy,” that means he’s equally efficient towards right-handed and left-handed hitters.
“But against a lefty who has more [extreme] splits, I might think about it,” Roberts mentioned. “If I do, I would certainly have Freddie be part of that conversation.”
If Ohtani was crushing the ball the way in which he did for the primary six weeks, Roberts may not even be contemplating that dialog, however the slugger is batting .204 (11 for 54) with a .627 OPS, two homers and eight RBIs in his final 14 video games.
Ohtani went one for 3 with a single, a stroll, a strikeout and a stolen base Saturday night time, however he price the Dodgers a run when he was picked off second base earlier than Freeman’s single in the third inning.
Ohtani was hitting .364 with a 1.108 OPS on May 15. He is now batting .326 with a .999 OPS. Not coincidentally, Ohtani suffered a right-hamstring bruise when he was hit by a pickoff throw from Reds left-hander Brent Suter on May 16.
“His words, he doesn’t feel it when he’s swinging the bat,” Roberts mentioned. “But he’s a finely tuned machine, and sometimes, in the context of a sports car, when it’s not firing on all cylinders, it just doesn’t run right.
“When his back was bothering him a little bit [in early May] you saw some funkier swings, a little bit more chase. His hamstring is bothering him a little bit, you see a little bit of the same thing. But I think that he’s getting close to where he needs to be physically. I think that staying to the big part of the field is a remedy.”
Rehab report
Clayton Kershaw’s fastball touched 88 mph throughout a 20-pitch simulated inning in which he confronted three batters Saturday, a exercise the veteran left-hander, who’s recovering from shoulder surgical procedure, likened to “basically the first step of spring training.”
Kershaw will throw a two-inning simulated sport with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga later this week whereas the Dodgers are on the street. If he follows a standard six-week spring coaching development with out setback, he may return in mid-July.
“Right now, we’re way ahead of schedule, which is really encouraging,” Roberts mentioned. “He came out of it feeling good, feeling strong. There was no tentativeness. I didn’t see him guarding anything. He felt free and easy.”
Bobby Miller, out since April 13 due to shoulder irritation, gave up 4 earned runs and 5 hits in 3⅓ innings with no strikeouts and one stroll in his second rehabilitation begin for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga at Lake Elsinore on Saturday.
The right-hander threw 65 pitches, 38 for strikes. He will make not less than another rehab begin for triple-A Oklahoma City earlier than being thought-about for the Dodgers’ rotation.
“Early on, I heard that the velocity was down,” Roberts mentioned, “a couple miles per hour lower than what is typical for Bobby.”
Was the dip attributable to a bodily setback?
“No, because I would have heard that,” Roberts mentioned. “So it’s nothing too concerning.”
Miller was scheduled to make not less than another rehab begin for triple-A Oklahoma City earlier than being thought-about for the Dodgers rotation, however Roberts mentioned his rehab stint could possibly be prolonged.