SAN FRANCISCO — When fortune turned for the Los Angeles Dodgers, even Michael Conforto reaped the benefits. The Dodgers’ offense has found a 24-hour revival in the Bay Area, putting up 23 runs over the last two games at Oracle Park and tightening their boa constrictor-like pressure on opponents. They looked like Dodger lineups of old, putting stress on each pitch, chasing accomplished starters before they could reach the fifth inning and taking advantage of staffs at their breaking point.
“That’s more like us,” Freddie Freeman said.
A 10-2 win Sunday against the San Francisco Giants capped off the best week of offense this team has seen in months. The kicker is that all those runs came with just one ball going over the fence for a homer this weekend.
They had already put up four runs on the day and chased Robbie Ray from the game by the time Conforto stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning. Few players in baseball have gotten as much playing time and produced as little value as Conforto, who came up with the bases loaded, nobody out and a .632 OPS on the season.
Conforto broke his bat the first time he swung, dribbling a ground ball through the right side that scored two runs. An inning later, he swung a second time, tapping a ball off the end of the bat that pitcher Spencer Bivens couldn’t handle to load the bases and keep the inning going.
Miguel Rojas immediately followed with a two-run single. His third swing finally brought his batting average to the .200 mark for the first time since April 19, lining a single to right to bring home a run in the eighth inning.
“It’s been a long time,” Conforto said with a smile that read more like relief than anything else.
“He’s off the interstate, which is a good thing,” manager Dave Roberts said.
That’s just how things are going for this offense. Finally. The dam broke Saturday night for the Dodgers’ maligned offense, even with Logan Webb pitching. It kept gushing Sunday. The day was filled with heroes, expected and not. Teoscar Hernández recorded four hits a day after he recorded three knocks. Mookie Betts reached base safely four times, including a pair of hits, as his resurgence continued. Ben Rortvedt, in his 10th day on the active roster, found a way to get on base three times. Even Conforto found a way to contribute.
“Just a little bit of luck,” Conforto said. “Ball rolling my way. It seems like when you’re in a better place, those things happen a little bit more often.”
For as ugly as the baseball has been for months, the Dodgers have pieced together five wins in their last six games. They’re doing their part.
“The last week (is) what we’ve been trying to do,” said Freeman, “and we’ve been able to actually do it in the games.”
It might be a little too late for everything they hoped to accomplish in terms of seeding – the Philadelphia Phillies come into town next with a four and a half game lead for the second seed in the National League and with it, a first-round bye. That race isn’t over, but the optimism is real.
“We’ve put ourselves in a tough spot,” Roberts said. “I still think, honestly, we just got to win games. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, great. We’ve got to just play good baseball.”
They’re starting to do just that.
Shohei Ohtani’s return to the mound
Ohtani will start that second game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday, Roberts confirmed this weekend, giving the two-way star 11 days between pitching outings. Roberts said the extended layoff was just the team being cautious with their prized star, but it comes with a potential wrinkle.
It would line him up to pitch again the following Tuesday, and then have a week before potentially starting Game 1 of a Wild Card Series the Tuesday after that.
“I don’t know,” Roberts said with a wry smile. “I’m just trying to get through this series and the next series.”
It’s an interesting thought experiment to ponder how the Dodgers will map out their rotation and pitching plans, especially if they have to now try to win 13 games in October as opposed to the goal of 11 they’ve had every year under this format. This much is clear: Ohtani will be starting games, so having him start the first game of a potential series would, in theory, maximize the team’s options going forward while ensuring he has enough rest.
Ohtani’s pitching adds a whole different dimension to this October, but the Dodgers are already seeing some of the lessons he learned in his first postseason run last year.
“Last year, I think there were times where he was sort of even manic, swinging the bat, trying to get hits, chase hits, when guys were clearly trying to pitch around him,” Roberts said. “Where I think now, in this kind of moment in time, where it’s a playoff race, a pennant race for us, I think that he is locked in his plate discipline. And that’s how a superstar manages the postseason, the pitching.”
Roberts’ message heading into last postseason was simple: Ohtani needs to let Mookie Betts and Freeman help carry the load behind him. That may be even more true this season, as the gap in season-long production between Ohtani and the other former MVPs has grown a little wider (though Betts has turned it on over the last month).
“It’s true always,” Roberts said. “Unequivocally, it’s true. And I say that because if they’re going to throw balls out of the hitting zone and for you to swing at them, you’re not helping yourself or the team, regardless. That doesn’t change. But I think it’s easier to kind of reconcile that for Shohei, when you have guys that are swinging the bats better. But teams are gonna make Mookie beat them going forward, versus letting Shohei (do it).”
Tyler Glasnow finds his focus
Glasnow was frustrated Sunday. It’s not like he was hiding it, from his facial expressions to his body language to the way he was searching for a way out of the predicament he’d created. Five of the first 13 batters he faced reached base safely via a walk or a hit by pitch as he battled for a feel of something resembling command.
“Not much feel for anything early on,” Glasnow said. “Kind of the whole game to be honest … This was, timing-wise, probably the worst I’ve felt all year. It was just trying to go out there and compete.”
It’s easy to recall a situation where that wouldn’t have ended well for Glasnow. He’d already coughed up an early lead.
Then he came within one pitch of completing seven innings. Glasnow allowed just that one run over his 6 2/3 innings, striking out just four but finding a way to keep the Giants at bay.
“You’re always in between whether or not you want to make him work or try to get that fastball early in the count,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “Nothing really worked with it today.”
At one point, Glasnow retired 10 batters in a row as he started to lean more on his sinker and his slider.
“For me, I love the fact that he is fighting through some things, even when he does not have his best stuff or he doesn’t feel great,” Roberts said.
It’s a big thing. Roberts has been critical of Glasnow’s propensity to do the opposite. Even before Glasnow went on the injured list this season, he largely fixated on his analysis of how he felt rather than his ability to show up and pitch well regardless of the soft factors.
“Since I got back from the IL, it’s been easier to kind of put it out of my head and go compete,” Glasnow said. “If my stuff sucks, it’s kind of whatever. Just compete, try to get in the zone, get some weak contact. It’s helpful.”
That is what has been most notable about this stretch for Glasnow of late, even if that comes with a caveat of having his last start pushed back due to back tightness. He’s always had tantalizing stuff, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning of his Aug. 30 start against the Arizona Diamondbacks and not allowing a hit on Monday against the Colorado Rockies. Now, he’s marrying it with the mindset that the organization has hoped he can embrace.
It’s coming at the right time. The Dodgers acquired Glasnow with October in mind and then went out and won a World Series with him on the shelf. For as well as he’s pitched, it’s not all that clear how Glasnow fits into an October picture now. Still, his health, availability and renewed focus could be valuable for the Dodgers at just the right time.
“His ability to block out noise and just focus on the hitter, that pitch, I think that’s the most telling thing for me,” Roberts said.
(Photo of Michael Conforto: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)