Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith help restore some life to Dodgers' offense in win
In six innings against struggling Minnesota Twins starter David Festa, the Dodgers' slumping offense managed only four hits — doing little to quell the offensive concerns that have mounted during a puzzling month of poor all-around production.
Three of the knocks, however, went over the fence, with a two-run blast from Shohei Ohtani in the first inning and a pair of solo homers from Will Smith in the fourth and sixth lifting the team to a 5-2 win at Dodger Stadium.
Read more: From a day off to the leadoff spot, Dodgers try unraveling mystery of Mookie Betts' slump
A course correction, this was not for the Dodgers' supposed powerhouse offense.
Entering the night, the team had the third-lowest team batting average in the majors this month. As even president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acknowledged during pregame batting practice, 'we've had more than half of our lineup really scuffle' for the last six weeks running.
'The offense scuffling the way it has,' Friedman added, 'was something that I didn't expect over this kind of protracted period of time.'
On Monday, though, the Dodgers did rectify at least one issue plaguing their recent offensive struggles. After hitting only 19 total home runs in their first 15 games in July, they went deep four times against the Twins (48-52), with Andy Pages adding an insurance shot in the seventh inning against reliever Cole Sands. It marked only the fifth time this season they hit at least four homers in a single contest.
Ohtani provided the night's first big swing, immediately erasing the leadoff blast he allowed to Byron Buxton in the top of the first while making his sixth pitching start of the season.
In his second game occupying the second spot in the batting order, the two-way star wasn't forced to rush between the mound and the plate (something manager Dave Roberts hoped would be a side benefit of replacing him with Mookie Betts as the team's leadoff hitter). He was able to go through his normal routine of on-deck swings while watching Betts draw a five-pitch walk.
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Then, for the first time in his six games as a pitcher this season, Ohtani not only got a hit, but clobbered a hanging changeup in a two-and-one count, launching his 35th home run of the season 441 feet to straightaway center.
From there, the Dodgers (59-42) kept playing long ball.
Festa, a second-year right-hander who entered the night with a 5.25 earned-run average, retired the next nine batters he faced before Smith came up to lead off the fourth.
Festa got ahead one-and-two in the count, before throwing a changeup that Smith fought off and missing wide with a slider. Festa's next pitch was a fastball left over middle. Smith, the one Dodgers hitter who has been swinging a hot bat of late, didn't miss it, going the other way to make the score 3-1.
Festa was still in the game when Smith came back up in the sixth. Once again, the pitcher made a mistake, hanging a slider over the heart of the plate. Once again, Smith was all over it, sending a souvenir into the left-field pavilion for his 14th home run, and first multi-homer game since last July.
With the two blasts, Smith raised his National League-leading batting average to .327. Since the start of July, he is 15 for 40 with a 1.163 OPS.
By the time Pages added to the lead in the seventh, whacking his 18th of the season deep to left, the game was already in hand.
Despite giving up plenty of hard contact and lacking the pinpoint command he'd flashed in his previous starts, Ohtani kept the Twins off the board over the rest of his three-inning outing, collecting three strikeouts over a season-high 46 pitches to finish the night with a 1.50 ERA.
After that, converted starter Dustin May followed with a productive bulk outing from the bullpen, scattering five hits over 4 ⅔ scoreless frames.
Read more: Pitching injuries continue to be an issue in MLB. How it's impacting pitchers at all levels
The Dodgers did not get out of Monday unscathed. In the top of the ninth, closer Tanner Scott left the game alongside a trainer after walking one batter, hitting another and then spiking a slider that left him grimacing.
As he left the field, he appeared to be flexing his left throwing arm — a potentially troubling sign for a Dodgers team that was already in need of bullpen reinforcements ahead of next week's trade deadline.
But on Monday, at least, the team survived, with James Outman denying Carlos Correa a potential tying three-run homer off Scott's replacement, Kirby Yates, with a leaping catch at the center-field wall for the night's final out.
Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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