LOS ANGELES — The wait was worth it and a reminder of what could have been at the same time.
Max Muncy hit two home runs with four RBIs one day after returning from the Injured List and the Dodgers finally were the team forcing the action in a 12-6 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.
Teoscar Hernandez had his own uprising with another two-homer, four-RBI game as the Dodgers scored double-digit runs for the first time since June 22 in a 13-7 victory over the Washington Nationals.
Muncy had four hits, Hernandez had three and Mookie Betts ended an 0-for-22 downturn with his own three-hit game, his first since June 7.
“It’s huge. It’s really good to see runs put up on the board,” Muncy said. “Throughout the lineup, a lot of guys got a lot of hits. I know that’s something you hope can kind of catapult the lineup, and hopefully we keep that going.”
Just how much of a mixed bag has it been on offense this season? When Hernandez followed Muncy with a home run in the third inning, it was just the second time the Dodgers went back-to-back after Shohei Ohtani and Betts did it in a May 19 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“I thought we did a lot of things well tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Yeah, Max, he picked up where he left off, just really took a lot of great swings tonight. The ability to get on the fastball, hit a couple homers, and then hit some breaking balls to still drive in a run, get some base hits, four hits, and just that presence in the lineup is so additive and just makes everyone around him better.”
Muncy was on a 10-for-29 uprising with four home runs in the eight games leading into his injury. He missed 26 games after he departed during Clayton Kershaw’s 3,000th-strikeout game on July 2 with a bruised bone in his left knee.
He returned to that prior form a little more than a month later.
“I was getting to the pitches at the top of the zone,” Muncy said. “You guys have heard me say this before, as long as I’m doing that, I feel like my swing is in a really good spot. The pitches I was able to hit tonight, I felt really good about.”
The Dodgers’ newfound flow was further represented Tuesday by Betts’ performance that he punctuated after a fifth-inning single with a firm clap of his hands that also looked like a frustration release.
And yet Betts will not feel back to his former self until he is able to repeat his effort from Tuesday.
“It’s good to get the results, but it’s one game,” Betts said. “Every time we talk about this, I go 0-for-20 after. So we’ll see about tomorrow.”
The Dodgers’ lineup was built as a force able to absorb occasional struggles from some of its stars. But Betts, Freddie Freeman, Hernandez and Michael Conforto all have delivered seasons under expectations. All four either drove in or scored runs. Tommy Edman has dealt with nagging injuries and Muncy was hurt.
The Dodgers still lead the National League West, but Tuesday’s win made them just 8-9 since the All-Star break.
With two months remaining in the season, manager Dave Roberts is expressing faith that the offense, especially contributions from Betts, will return to expected norms. His insistence that Betts remains toward the top of the order is an act of faith.
“I do think that his value as a baseball player has certainly been additive, speaking to the defense,” Roberts said of his shortstop. “And I think for me, it’s not giving him any out. It’s appreciating he’s the best option we have at the top, near the top.
“If that’s not confidence from a manager to a player, I don’t know what is, when you’re scuffling and you’re going through it, that I’m not going to waver. So my only ask for him, and I’ve told him this, is, ‘I want you to have as much confidence in yourself as I do. And it’ll turn.’”
As the rotation returns to health, with the recent addition of left-hander Blake Snell, right-hander Emmet Sheehan is showing that he wants to keep mixing it up with the Dodgers’ proven starters.
Sheehan (3-2) gave up two runs on four hits over five innings with five strikeouts. The 25-year-old, who is returning from Tommy John surgery, has given up more than two earned runs just once in seven starts.
“Definitely learning, just trying to make adjustments if something’s a little off in the game, and I felt good about that tonight,” Sheehan said. “I felt like in that last inning, I got back on what I was supposed to be doing.”
Roberts has been utilizing a six-man rotation and plans to continue that setup at least through Sheehan’s upcoming start next week against the Angels.
“Then we’ll go from there,” Roberts said about reassessing his pitching options.
The offense put the game away with a five-run seventh inning when Muncy had an RBI single, Hernandez hit a three-run home run and Alex Freeland had an RBI single to cap his first career start at second base.
The 12 runs were the seventh time the Dodgers have scored in double digits this season and the first since they scored a season-high 13 on June 22 against the Washington Nationals.
“Getting guys on base, taking walks, we got some luck with some seeing-eye ground balls, but we’ll take ’em,” Roberts said. “The baserunning was really good. Just the energy tonight (and) very opportunistic at-bats.”