{"id":902454,"date":"2026-06-30T06:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/902454\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T06:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:05:27","slug":"teoscar-hernandez-returns-dodgers-beat-athletics-with-17-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/902454\/","title":{"rendered":"Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez returns, Dodgers beat Athletics with 17 hits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> was back from a hamstring injury, and a little bit humble. He was about to play his first game in a month for the Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they really need me in the lineup,\u201d he said, with a hint of a smile.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez hit 58 home runs over his first two seasons with the Dodgers, each of which ended in a World Series championship, so of course they need him. But, in his absence, the Dodgers had more than doubled their National League West lead.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez is back, but Will Smith<\/a> and Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> still are out. So are Tyler Glasnow<\/a>, Blake Snell<\/a> and Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No matter: The Dodgers boosted their division lead to 11 games Monday with a 9-4 victory<\/a> over the Athletics. Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, Max Muncy<\/a> and Andy Pages<\/a> homered to highlight a 17-hit attack.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are on pace to win the NL West by 21 games. They boast the best record in the major leagues at 55-30, and Ohtani and the Traveling All-Stars remain baseball\u2019s best road show.<\/p>\n

Before the game, a guy setting up one of the merchandise stands here pointed to all the Dodgers gear for sale. He wore a Dodgers cap. He said he wished he had more Dodgers stuff to sell, because the crowd would be overwhelmingly in favor of the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

And so it was, one day after San Diego fans complained of all the Dodgers partisans at Petco Park<\/a>. In Sacramento, where the wandering home team wears a Sacramento patch on one jersey sleeve and a Las Vegas patch on the other sleeve, there were loud cheers for Ohtani and Freddie Freeman<\/a> and Mookie Betts<\/a>, and loud chants of \u201cLet\u2019s go, Dodgers!\u201d<\/p>\n

Every Dodger in the starting lineup had two hits except for Betts, who had one.<\/p>\n

Eric Lauer, imported to fortify a starting rotation without Glasnow and Snell, worked six innings to record the victory. He gave up three runs and four hits in the second inning, no runs and five hits over the other five.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Dodgers starting pitcher Eric Lauer worked six innings to record the victory. He gave up three runs and four hits in the second inning, no runs and four hits over the other five.<\/p>\n

(Thearon W. Henderson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He is 3-0 with 2.88 earned-run average in six starts for the Dodgers, the last three of them classified as quality starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been nothing but impressive for us,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Glasnow and Snell are weeks away from returning, and maybe more, but Roberts said they would not lose their job because of injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cEric coming over here knew that this was the deal, right?\u201d said Roberts, who posted his 999th career win<\/a>. \u201cUntil they get back. We just don\u2019t know when. He\u2019s just got to stay focused on doing his job. Then when that time comes we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the top of the second, the Dodgers bunched four hits, all singles \u2014 the first by Hern\u00e1ndez, beating out an infield single in his first at-bat since the hamstring injury \u2014 to take a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the inning, the A\u2019s also bunched four hits, including a Colby Thomas home run, to take a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n

The rest of the Dodgers\u2019 scoring: a solo homer by Muncy and a two-run homer by Pages in the fourth, a three-run homer by Ohtani in the sixth, and an RBI single by Freeman in the eighth. The A\u2019s scored the final run on a wild pitch in the ninth.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

And, speaking of wild, each team had a Max Muncy<\/a> playing third base and batting seventh.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a strange feeling standing at third base and they\u2019re announcing that you\u2019re hitting and it\u2019s not you,\u201d Muncy (the Dodgers one) said.<\/p>\n

Miguel Rojas said the Dodgers have flourished in the wake of significant injuries because the organization places a priority<\/a> on developing players and giving them a fair shot at playing time, citing Pages, infielder Alex Freeland and pitchers Justin Wrobleski and Emmet Sheehan, as well as wise trades for supplementary players, including infielder-outfielder Tommy Edman and outfielder Alex Call.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not living with the narrative of \u2018We\u2019re buying championships and spending money,\u2019\u201d Rojas said. \u201cYeah, we\u2019re spending money to get good players. But we\u2019re not really basing our success just on that.<\/p>\n

\"Shohei <\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a three-run home run for the Dodgers in the sixth inning against the Athletics on Monday night.<\/p>\n

(Sara Nevis \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe front office does quality work on getting the right players and putting the puzzle together. I feel that\u2019s the reason why we can afford losing a couple guys in the middle of the year, because we have a full team that is ready to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Rojas conceded none of that would matter without Ohtani, Freeman, Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And, yes, Rojas said, the Dodgers do have an irreplaceable player.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really hard if we lose Shohei,\u201d Rojas said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a little bit different than losing another player. Having Shohei at the top of the lineup every single day and doing both sides of the ball has been really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani gave the Sacramento crowd what it wanted to see: a majestic 432-foot home run, with a supercharged, 112-mph exit velocity. On Wednesday, the last day of the Dodgers\u2019 only scheduled visit here before the A\u2019s move to Las Vegas in 2028, he\u2019ll take the mound to give the people more of what they want to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we got market share tonight,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt was fun. A lot of people don\u2019t get a chance to see us play. So people up here in this area, Northern California, get to see us, get to see Shohei put on a show.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez was back from a hamstring injury, and a little bit humble. He was about to play…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":902455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[5955,3955,27043,1582,276,2442,6595,1910,91894,19498,2961,224,5337,32075,2749,9323,10201,4712,365447,6601],"class_list":["post-902454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-andy-pages","tag-athletics","tag-blake-snell","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-dodgers","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-game","tag-hernandez","tag-hit","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-miguel-rojas","tag-mookie-betts","tag-player","tag-run","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-teoscar-hernandez-return","tag-tyler-glasnow"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116837557892639184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902454","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=902454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}