{"id":120043,"date":"2025-08-05T05:15:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120043\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T05:15:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:15:22","slug":"dodgers-manufacture-enough-offense-to-slip-past-tampa-bay-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120043\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers manufacture enough offense to slip past Tampa Bay Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TAMPA, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Scoring runs at Steinbrenner Field should not be as hard as the Dodgers<\/a> made it look this weekend.<\/p>\n

The spring training ballpark, which is doubling as the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 temporary home this season after Tropicana Field was shredded in an offseason hurricane, has small Yankee Stadium-inspired dimensions that played even shorter in this weekend\u2019s sweltering Florida summer heat.<\/p>\n

Yet, for 18 innings, from the top of the sixth on Friday night to the end of the fifth on Sunday afternoon, the Dodgers put nothing but zeros on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

They couldn\u2019t capitalize on the short porch in right field. They didn\u2019t run into any cheap home runs amid conditions that should have helped the ball fly.<\/p>\n

During a 3-0 win<\/a> over the Rays on Sunday, the Dodgers manufactured offense in different kinds of ways instead.<\/p>\n

In the top of the sixth, third base coach Dino Ebel<\/a> decided to wave his arm on an aggressive send of Freddie Freeman, who chugged to the plate and just beat out a tag to score on Andy Pages<\/a>\u2019 RBI single to left.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he sent me, I was like, \u2018Oh man, I gotta make this,\u2019\u201d Freeman said. \u201c[After] not scoring any runs yesterday, I get it. We gotta be aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the seventh, the Dodgers (65-47) needed a swinging-bunt single from Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, a one-out walk from Mookie Betts<\/a> and a double-steal from both players to set up Freeman for another RBI single.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we want to hit home runs every time, score 10 runs, we got to win games like this,\u201d Freeman added. \u201cIt\u2019s a good sign for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, in the ninth, the Dodgers sewed up the victory after Betts grinded out a 10-pitch at-bat that ended with an insurance-run-scoring sacrifice fly to center.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws during the first inning of a win over the Rays in Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n

(Jason Behnken \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Such results will do little to quell the concerns about the team\u2019s slumping lineup, which has seen a brutal performance in July (when they scored the third-fewest runs in the majors) continue into the start of August.<\/p>\n

But on a day Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> delivered 5 \u2154 scoreless innings (in which he struck out six batters without issuing a walk) and the Dodgers\u2019 bullpen completed a second shutout of the Rays (55-58) in three games (despite a bases-loaded scare in the bottom of the ninth against Blake Treinen), it was nonetheless enough to ensure the team returned home from this nine-game road trip with a winning 5-4 record. And, given their recent struggles, a little bit of momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe finally built some innings, situational hitting was good, and we got some key hits,\u201d manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said. \u201cThis is the last one of these long [road trips]. … But 5-4, I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 ongoing search for offense included another twist on Sunday morning. Two weeks after flipping Ohtani and Betts at the top of the batting order<\/a>, Roberts reversed course by returning Ohtani to the top spot and dropping Betts \u2014 who has remained mired in his season-long slump \u2014 into the two-hole.<\/p>\n

Early on, the results weren\u2019t promising.<\/p>\n

Betts grounded into a double-play in the first inning, immediately after Ohtani had led off with a walk.<\/p>\n

In the fifth, the Rays intentionally walked Ohtani to put two aboard in front of Betts. But he flied out to center to end the inning, extending his recent hitless streak to 16 at-bats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of just trying to figure out what\u2019s best short term,\u201d Roberts said of the lineup adjustment, while remaining undecided on how the batting order will look in the coming days. \u201cWith [Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez, who got an off day] not being in there, this was the best lineup for today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts hinted that more tinkering could happen once Max Muncy<\/a> returns from the injured list, which could happen as soon as Monday \u2014 especially after infielder Tommy Edman<\/a> left Sunday\u2019s game with a sprained right ankle, which will likely land him on the injured list as he continues to battle season-long ankle troubles.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to play the game hard, take advantage of certain situations,\u201d said Edman, who immediately winced in pain after rounding first base on a single in the fifth inning. \u201cBut it\u2019s tough to do that when I don\u2019t feel I have the stability I need. That is frustrating and it kind of takes away a part of my game.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Betts, Roberts also left open the possibility of dropping him further down the batting order, as he continues to search for answers to his career-low .233 batting average.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve thought about it,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a totally fair question. I\u2019m just trying to figure out what would be best for him, for the team. But yeah, I\u2019ve thought about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, however, the Dodgers are clinging to what positives they can.<\/p>\n

Ohtani entered Sunday in a recent skid that included 20 strikeouts in his last 10 games, but managed to reach base four total times to go along with two steals.<\/p>\n

Freeman stayed hot with his second three-hit performance of the trip, raising his batting average (which had slipped to .292 just a week ago) back up to .306. Only teammate Will Smith\u2019s .324 mark is better this season in the National League.<\/p>\n

And by the end of the day, even Betts had pitched in with some much-needed contributions. <\/p>\n

His seventh-inning walk was one of five the Dodgers drew, in a reversal of their walk-less performance in Saturday\u2019s shutout loss.<\/p>\n

Then in the ninth, Betts took one of his best at-bats of the entire road trip, fouling off four consecutive two-strike pitches from Rays reliever Griffin Jax before lifting a 372-foot drive to center for his sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo real results,\u201d Betts said after yet another hitless day. \u201cBut I\u2019m just glad I helped the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Scoring runs at Steinbrenner Field should not be as hard as the Dodgers made it look this…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[74734,2442,74735,74733,6595,3688,1266,2749,20416,26804,4712,62,74736,22800,1289,1399,67,132,68,9953],"class_list":{"0":"post-120043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-batting-order","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-early-day","11":"tag-enough-offense","12":"tag-freddie-freeman","13":"tag-inning","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-mookie-betts","16":"tag-rays","17":"tag-roberts","18":"tag-shohei-ohtani","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-such-result","21":"tag-sunday-afternoon","22":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","23":"tag-top","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-weekend"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114974459506166219","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}