LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers can be forgiven for scheduling a lot of Shohei Ohtani bobblehead nights.
Beyond the obvious marketing benefits, Ohtani certainly seems to find them invigorating. He has homered on three of the first four giveaways, including a walkoff homer earlier this season and a two-homer, six-RBI night Thursday as the Dodgers sent the A’s back to wherever they call home these days with a 19-2 thumping – and a commemorative 50-50 Ohtani bobblehead…
The Dodgers scored a three-inning knockout Thursday, putting up 13 runs in their first three times at bat.
Dalton Rushing must think he’s joined the greatest offensive team in baseball history. He watched them score nine runs Wednesday night after being called up from Triple-A. Then, making his big-league debut Thursday, Rushing had two of the Dodgers’ 18 hits as they hit a season-high five home runs and reached a season-high in runs scored..
But it’s been going like this for awhile now.
Thursday was the sixth time in their past 15 games that the Dodgers have reached double digits in runs. Eight of Thursday’s runs came on three swings – a two-run home run by Max Muncy and three-run blasts from Ohtani and Andy Pages. Two of the feats of strength came off A’s reliever Jason Alexander in a seven-run third inning. Ohtani’s second home run also came off Alexander, a two-run homer in the fourth inning.
Over their past 18 games, the Dodgers have averaged 7.8 runs per game while batting .326 as a team with 32 home runs.
Not surprisingly, the Dodgers have been led by their MVP trio during this hot streak.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman were both given the night off after the first three innings. Betts had already scored three runs by then. After an illness-aided slow start, he is batting .304 (21 for 69) with 24 runs scored and 17 driven in over the past 18 games.
Freeman collected two hits before calling it a night and is batting .448 (30 for 67) with 23 RBIs during this 18-game run.
Ohtani went the distance – and struck out against A’s backup catcher Jhonny Pereda amid a three-run eighth inning. Pereda tossed the ball into the A’s dugout to save as a memento.
Over the past 18 games, though, Ohtani has done his part, batting .375 (27 for 72) with seven doubles, three triples, nine home runs, 25 runs scored and 20 driven in – the last, a testament to the bottom of the lineup finally getting on base for him. Batting ninth Thursday, Hyeseong Kim was on base five times (two singles, a double and two walks) and scored four runs.
Ohtani has eight multi-hit games in that stretch and eight home runs in his past 12 games.
All of the offense over the past 2 1/2 weeks has allowed the Dodgers to absorb their pitching challenges. Matt Sauer, Anthony Banda and Justin Wrobleski handled the mound duties well enough against the A’s, holding them to two runs on just three hits.