A steady stream of hits, walks and quality at-bats didn’t translate into a lot of runs for the Dodgers on Saturday night, but when combined with a strong start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a great relief pitch, it was enough for a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies in front of 50,182 people at Dodger Stadium.
A struggling Dodgers offense racked up 11 hits, including three by Andy Pages and two each by Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández, and four walks, but could not build more than a three-run cushion.
Thanks to Yamamoto, the Dodgers didn’t need him. The right-hander navigated through heavy traffic to complete six innings, allowing one run on seven hits, striking out seven and walking one to improve to 6-2 with a 3.32 ERA in 12 starts.
Read more: Dodgers baffled by Colorado pitching as winning streak ends
Yamamoto allowed his only run in the second inning when Brendan Rodgers doubled, took third on Elehuris Montero’s groundout to second and scored on Brenton Doyle’s sacrifice fly to right field.
He stranded two runners in each of the first, third and sixth innings and, with his season-high 101st pitch of the game, got Montero to ground out to the shortstop with runners on second and third to end the sixth, preserving a 4-1 lead. lead.
Daniel Hudson retired in order in the seventh, Blake Treinen allowed two hits in a scoreless eighth and closer Evan Phillips, making his first appearance since May 3, retired in order in the ninth for the save.
The Dodgers scored twice in the second for a 2-1 lead, the first run coming when the Rockies committed two errors on the same play and the second on a two-out single by Pages and an RBI double by Jason Heyward between right and center field.
Pages singled with two outs in the fourth, Heyward walked and Kiké Hernández hit an RBI single to left-center for a 3-1 lead. Freeman tripled into the left field corner and scored on Will Smith’s RBI double to left field for a 4-1 lead in the fifth.
The Dodgers were an offensive force for seven weeks, batting .263 with a .792 on-base plus slugging percentage and averaging 5.4 runs through May 14, a stretch in which they went 29-15. But in their next 15 games through Friday night, they hit .230 with a .672 OPS and averaged 3.5 runs, going 7-8 in that span.
Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freeman and Smith have occupied the top four spots in the lineup all season, but with the team in a prolonged situation, manager Dave Roberts said he was considering tweaking the lineup.
“I’ve thought about potentially splitting the two lefties,” Roberts said before the game, referring to Ohtani and Freeman. “Not against right-handed (starters), but maybe against left-handed players.”
If Roberts traded Freeman and Smith, the Dodgers would go right-left-right-left-right in the top five, with Teoscar Hernández batting fifth. That would give them a more balanced lineup overall and leave the top of the order less vulnerable to left-handed relievers in the late innings.
Roberts said he won’t make that change against Austin Gomber on Sunday because the Rockies left-hander is “a neutral guy,” meaning he’s equally effective against right-handed and left-handed hitters.
“But against a lefty who has more (extreme) splits, I might think about it,” Roberts said. “If I do, I’ll certainly make Freddie part of that conversation.”
If Ohtani was crushing the ball like he did through the first six weeks of the season, Roberts might not even consider that conversation, but the slugger entered Saturday with a .196 average (10-for-51), .627 OPS, two home runs and eight RBIs in his previous 13 games.
Ohtani went three for one with a single, a walk, a strikeout and a stolen base on Saturday night, but cost the Dodgers a run when he was intercepted at second base before Freeman’s single in the third entry.
Ohtani was hitting .364 with a 1.108 OPS on May 15. He’s now hitting .326 with a .999 OPS. It’s no coincidence that Ohtani suffered a bruise on his right hamstring when he was hit by a pitch from Reds left-handed pitcher Brent Suter on May 16.
“He doesn’t mean his words when he swings the bat,” Roberts said. “But it’s a finely tuned machine and sometimes, in the context of a sports car, when it’s not firing on all cylinders, it just doesn’t work properly.
“When his back was bothering him a little (in early May) there were some more fun changes, a little more chasing. Her hamstring is bothering her a little bit, it looks a little the same. But I think she’s getting closer to where she needs to be physically. I think staying in a large part of the field is a remedy.”
Rehabilitation report
Clayton Kershaw’s fastball hit 88 mph during a simulated 20-pitch inning in which he faced three batters Saturday, a workout the veteran left-hander, who is recovering from shoulder surgery, compared to “basically the first step.” of spring training.”
Kershaw will pitch a two-inning simulated game with Class A Rancho Cucamonga later this week while the Dodgers are on the road. If he follows a normal six-week spring training progression without setbacks, he could return in mid-July.
“Right now we’re way ahead of schedule, which is really encouraging,” Roberts said. “He came out feeling good, feeling strong. There was no hesitation. I didn’t see him guarding anything. He felt free and calm.”
Bobby Miller, out since April 13 due to shoulder inflammation, allowed four earned runs on five hits in 3 ⅓ innings with no strikeouts and one walk in his second rehab start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga in Lake Elsinore Saturday.
The right-hander threw 65 pitches, 38 for strikes. He will make at least one more rehab start for triple-A Oklahoma City before being considered for the Dodgers’ rotation.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
