by Cary Osborne
There were a lot of home runs on Sunday — six to be exact.
A Majestic one (Shohei Ohtani’s 473-foot homer), a round-number one (Teoscar Hernández’s 20th of the season), one that served as an answer (Freddie Freeman’s first-inning homer after the Red Sox took a lead in their first ups) and a comeback one (Jason Heyward’s two-run homer in his return from the injured list).
But two players lesser know for their power each hit their own meaningful one — a good thing for a team still looking to get more consistent production outside of their main run producers.
Gavin Lux homered in his second consecutive game, and backup catcher Austin Barnes hit his first of the year.
The Dodgers’ six homers were a season high in their 9–6 victory over the Red Sox, completing a three-game sweep.
Lux homered in the fourth inning — his fifth of the year — to give the Dodgers a 4–2 lead at the time. He also doubled in a run in the first inning to tie the score. The Dodger second baseman went 3-for-4 in the game.
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He is 5-for-6 with four extra-base hits in his last two games.
“Right now there’s more intent with his swing,” said manager Dave Roberts. “I think that there was a passivity, a carefulness for a better part of this year. But I think right now, he’s getting loaded, and he’s getting his A-swing off more.”
Lux entered Saturday batting .211/.264/.291/.555. He is now batting .225/.276/.333/.609.
“Baseball’s hard,” Lux said. “ I don’t think (the recent power surge) is really like a swing change or anything. I think just trying to be a little more aggressive. When I get a decent pitch to hit try to put a good swing on it.”
Barnes’ homer gave him a nine-game hitting streak, which dates back to June 21. He is 11-for-27 (.407) in the span.
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The Dodgers fell behind in the game because of a home run. Jarren Duran, who went 6-for-12 with seven RBI in the series, hit a two-run home run off James Paxton in a difficult first-inning for the left-hander. Durran’s homer was off Paxton’s third pitch of the game.
But from the third through fifth innings, the Red Sox were 1-for-14 against Paxton.
He gave the Dodgers five innings, having allowed three earned runs.
Dodgers finish sweep of Red Sox with power from six different players was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.