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LOS ANGELES — The way the Dodgers were playing in the days before the All-Star break, it looked like they might never win another game. The way they are playing since coming back from the break, it looks like they might not lose a game any time soon.
They made it five consecutive wins since the All-Star break on Tuesday night, getting two-run doubles from Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani in a 5-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
“I think for us, we just ran out of gas,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the 1-6 finish to the first half. “But even in that last game, there was a chance. We should have still won the series. But we just ran out of gas against the Tigers over there. And Philly, I think we just didn’t play well. I thought we were just outplayed there.”
Lux called the four-day break “a good mental re-set” for everyone.
“Obviously … that week before the break wasn’t great so I think we all just had a nice little reset and we’ve been playing good team baseball top to bottom and it’s been fun the last five days,” he said. “Baseball is about momentum so try to keep it rolling off these wins.”
The biggest difference has been the starting pitching. Running on fumes before the break, the Dodgers have refueled with rookies – four of the five starting pitchers in this streak have been rookies (Gavin Stone, Justin Wrobleski, River Ryan and Landon Knack).
Those five starters have allowed just five earned runs in 24⅔ innings during the winning streak (three by the lone veteran, since-DFA’d James Paxton).
“It’s been a huge part,” Roberts said. “I think if you look at the stretches where we win baseball games, we’re getting quality starts. Maybe not by the letter of the law quality starts (six innings, three runs or fewer) but we’re getting good starts. And when we don’t, we go through those kind of ruts, we’re just not getting quality starting pitching.”
It was Knack’s turn to take the ball Tuesday and he gave the Dodgers five innings, allowing just two hits. One of them was a solo home run by Tyler Fitzgerald. The Giants shortstop has homered in five consecutive games, the longest streak by a Giant since Barry Bonds hit home runs in eight consecutive games during the 2004 season.
“Absolutely,” Knack said when asked if he enjoyed being part of the rookies to the rescue. “It’s the guys you come up with this entire way, to be able to see them come up here and have some success too and be able to contribute here, it’s fun. It’s cool to see the young guys step up and do their thing here. It’s been a great experience.”
The Dodgers’ offense did some of its best work against Giants starter Jordan Hicks by doing nothing. Hicks walked five, hit one and threw two wild pitches in an erratic 3⅔ innings.
The Dodgers had just three hits off Hicks, but two of them were the two-run doubles by Lux (in the first inning) and Ohtani (in the fourth).
Lux was 2 for 4 in the game and is in the midst of his best run of the season. He is 11 for his past 26 with three multi-hit games in his past four games and five extra-base hits in that time (three doubles, two home runs).
“I think it’s more mental. Just trying to be a little bit more aggressive,” Lux said of his surge.
“Just trying not to be safe in everything. Just be more aggressive, try to hit the ball hard and not worry about chasing and all this, just be aggressive and your eyes will tell you if it’s a ball or strike and that’s just kind of my approach.”
Roberts said he sees a more confident Lux as a result of the positive results.
“Confidence is everything. You can just see it in his at-bats,” Roberts said.
Brent Honeywell Jr. is having a pretty good run lately as well. Since he was claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates the weekend before the All-Star break, Honeywell has pitched seven scoreless innings for the Dodgers – including two following Knack against the Giants on Tuesday – and retired 19 of the 22 batters he has faced.
Blake Treinen followed Honeywell with a scoreless inning of his own and the Dodgers added another run in the bottom of the eighth on a two-out RBI single by Ohtani.
They took comfort from that added cushion as Alex Vesia struggled to close it out. He walked the first two batters he faced in the ninth and gave up an RBI single to Fitzgerald. Vesia retired two before Evan Phillips came in and waked the bases loaded before getting the final out.
Stay hot, Gavin 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wWo4Ev66aR
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) July 24, 2024
2-run double for Shohei Ohtani!
Dodgers lead 4-1. pic.twitter.com/LLh0ASZ2Fu
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) July 24, 2024
99.2 mph in, 114.2 mph out.
It’s a 3-RBI night for Shohei Ohtani! pic.twitter.com/GI8HaRS9XL
— MLB (@MLB) July 24, 2024
Originally Published: July 23, 2024 at 10:18 p.m.
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Courtesy : https://www.pressenterprise.com/2024/07/23/dodgers-beat-giants-to-keep-post-break-win-streak-going/