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LOS ANGELES — With the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks rapidly closing ground in the National League West, the Dodgers no longer have the luxury of being able to wait for their injured stars to return.
To maintain their stranglehold on the division, the Dodgers have to hit their stride now, regardless of who is in the lineup or on the mound.
Teoscar Hernandez stepped up to do just that on Sunday, hitting a walkoff, two-out RBI single to lift the Dodgers to a 6-5 win over the Pirates in 10 innings and complete a three-game sweep. Hernandez’s walkoff saved the Dodgers after they blew a late lead in the eighth inning and faced the dispiriting prospect of letting a winnable game slip away.
“I was just trying not to overthink it or overswing or anything like that,” Hernandez said. “Just trying to stay patient, be calm and get a good pitch and put it in play. In situations like that, with two outs, I don’t have to do a double or homer or anything like that. With a hit, we can win a ballgame, and that’s what I try to do.”
Tyler Glasnow delivered seven sharp innings for the Dodgers and departed with a 4-2 lead, but left-handed reliever Anthony Banda entered in the eighth and served up a two-run homer to Andrew McCutchen, McCutchen’s second of the game, to tie the score.
The Dodgers stranded the tying run on base in both the eighth and ninth innings, and the Pirates made them pay in the 10th. Bryan Reynolds blooped a shallow fly ball off Evan Phillips that Hernandez failed to come up with in left field, allowing automatic runner Michael A. Taylor to score from second base with the go-ahead run.
Kiké Hernandez helped get the Dodgers off the hook when he led off the bottom of the 10th with a double to left field off of Pirates closer David Bednar to bring home automatic runner Miguel Rojas and tie the score at 5-5. With no outs and the winning run on second, the Dodgers nearly wasted a prime chance to win the game when Jason Heyward struck out and Shohei Ohtani popped out.
But Teoscar Hernandez delivered, lining an elevated 98 mph fastball from Bednar into right field to score Kikè Hernandez with the winning run and send the Dodgers into a frenzied celebration.
“Runs batted in mean something,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s the name of the game. Pitchers pitch you differently, hitters respond differently when (there are) runners in scoring position, and Teo’s heartbeat doesn’t rise. It just looks like he embraces being in those spots. He shortens up his swing, makes contact and that’s why he’s driven in close to 80 runs already. it’s hard to find a guy that you know you want in that spot more than Teo.”
The Dodgers had lost eight of 13 games entering the series and watched their division lead shrivel from 7.5 to 2.5 games. The much-needed sweep is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t get any easier from here.
The Dodgers’ next 20 games are all against teams with winning records, starting with a four-game road series at the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
“Obviously it’s up to us,” Kiké Hernandez said. “The rest of the division is playing great baseball and if we keep losing games, they’re going to keep creeping up on us. At the same time, we can’t really worry about them. All we gotta do is just win games and they can’t gain on us.”
The good news is the Dodgers will soon receive needed reinforcements. Mookie Betts is scheduled to come off the injured list Monday, Walker Buehler is set to be activated Wednesday and Max Muncy and Tommy Edman are tentatively slated to return following the Dodgers’ upcoming seven-day road trip.
Still, the Dodgers will hardly be at full health. Yoshinobu Yamamoto still doesn’t have a date for a rehab start and key relievers Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol remain out with no firm timeline to return.
Hernandez did his part to send the Dodgers into the road trip on a high note. Because of his heroics, they’ll begin their most difficult stretch of the season with some much-needed momentum.
Originally Published: August 11, 2024 at 5:05 p.m.
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Courtesy : https://www.pressenterprise.com/2024/08/11/teoscar-hernandezs-game-winning-hit-leads-dodgers-past-pirates/