SAN DIEGO — What was that again about a slumbering offense?
Yes, the Dodgers spun their wheels for the first 23 innings of their weekend series here: Two runs (both on solo home runs by rookie Alex Freeland) and five hits in the first two games, followed with gentle suggestions that some of their hitters might want to change what had seemed an all-or-nothing approach.
And then they loaded the bases with none out in the first inning Sunday afternoon with two walks and a single against Padres starter Nick Pivetta and came out of it with only one run, though Teoscar Hernández missed a grand slam by the width of center fielder Ramón Laureano’s glove and had to settle for a sacrifice fly.
Still, a team that entered the day at or near the top of the major leagues in runs (first, 668), home runs (second, 192), OPS (second, .768) and slugging percentage (third, .438) didn’t look like it was meeting the urgency of the season’s last head-to-head meeting with the team attempting to topple them as division champions.
Or maybe we reacted too soon.
Turns out, the team that hadn’t been slugging or compensating for a lack of slug finally woke up midway through a rousing Sunday afternoon at Petco Park. Freddie Freeman’s sixth-inning home run tied the score, rookie catcher Dalton Rushing’s three-run bomb in the seventh untied it, and Freeman added a second home run in the seventh and Shohei Ohtani his 45th of the year in the ninth inning.
Voila: An 8-2 Dodgers’ victory, and an even National League West race with 31 games to go. Also, an 9-4 edge in the now completed season series with San Diego, should any postseason tiebreakers be necessary.
But, mainly, there were relieved expressions in the Dodgers’ clubhouse. As unsatisfactory – un-Dodger-like? – as the last 42 games have been for the defending champs, with an 18-25 record and a nine-game division lead squandered, there’s still that feeling – confidence among those in uniform, nervous hope among those who root for them – that maybe things will turn out OK after all.
Consider that several critical pieces have been missing. Max Muncy, Kiké Hernández, Tommy Edman and Hyeseong Kim should all be returning to the active roster in the next few weeks. And maybe the bullpen is starting to resemble the way it was originally designed, with Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates both activated this weekend. Both had clean innings Sunday, the eighth and ninth, respectively, so maybe – maybe – each had worked out whatever issues had led to their early season ineffectiveness.
We’ll see.
Meanwhile, it’s safe to say that Muncy, who went on the injured list last weekend with a strained oblique and earlier missed enough with a bone bruise in his left knee, really might be the key to this offense.
“I just think that his at-bat quality” makes him so valuable, Manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s another left-handed bat. (He has) the ability to get a hit, to get on base, to slug. It just checks a couple boxes with one player.”
Roberts momentarily forgot something else. Muncy isn’t afraid to draw a walk, either, and, according to Baseball Savant, is in the 96th percentile this year in not chasing bad pitches (and has for the most part been consistently in the high 90s in seven seasons as a Dodger).
That fits the emphasis on taking one for the team when necessary, shortening the swing, being selective, changing the approach with two strikes, not chasing the big hit at the expense of putting the ball in play. (And, for goodness sake, not flailing away at that sweeper that dips low and away).
“You slug with … a good pitch to hit,” Roberts said. “And so you earn those pitches. When you start chasing and expand the hitting zone, the slug is going to go down because that’s what pitchers are going to do and continue to expand. But when you earn good counts and get good pitches, control the zone, then, you know, slug happens. You can’t always chase it.”
The approach Sunday, then, was much better.
“From pitch one – Shohei’s at-bat in the first, Mookie’s (Betts) at-bat in the first, and Freddie, and just all throughout the lineup, I thought today was more indicative of what we’re going to do, (what) we expect going forward,” Roberts said. “Just the fight, the grind, taking what the pitcher gives you. And then if there’s slug there, there’s slug. But it’s just a byproduct of good at-bats all day today.”
Rushing demonstrated that in his at-bat in the seventh. Five pitches after grousing to plate umpire David Rackley about a called strike (which, according to MLB’s Gameday graphic, was indeed a little high), he turned on a Jeremy Estrada slider, belt high and over the middle of the plate, and launched it over the fence in right field for a three-run home run and a 5-2 Dodger lead.
Considering that Rushing plays only twice a week as Will Smith’s backup, finding a rhythm at the plate under the circumstances is plenty tough.
“I think the approach is getting closer to being in a better place,” he said. “The swing is what it is. The role is – it’s tough. So it’s hard to maintain a swing through however long (he sits). But if I have the right approach I can still do damage, drive in runs.
“I hit what I hit. Whatever I hit in this role, as long as I can drive in runs and like I said, do my job behind home plate, that’s been the positive.”
How hard is it to produce at the plate when you only play twice a week?
“In my opinion, pinch-hitting is the hardest thing to do,” Freeman said, adding that not playing regularly and getting everyday at-bats is pretty much the same challenge. “For him to put quality ABs – he always worked counts. He works walks. He gets deep into it. And for him to get a huge hit when we needed it most, that’s big for us.”
To sum up what turned out to be a productive Sunday in the Gaslamp Quarter, Freeman put it this way: “We had a better plan, executed it better. I thought the outs were better today.”
Better outs lead to better hits. In this case, strange but true.
jalexander@scng.com