LOS ANGELES — For the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sunday felt like mouthwash. They played a miserable week of baseball, returning to Dodger Stadium for three series and winning none of them. They didn’t hit. Didn’t pitch. Didn’t catch.
Then they battered the New York Mets and looked like the club that invested more than a billion dollars into its roster this winter. Shohei Ohtani unleashed a massive cut for a home run, swinging himself toward history for a Japanese-born player. Andy Pages batted twice in one inning, swatting a double before launching the first home run of his big-league career. Tyler Glasnow became the first Dodgers pitcher in nearly two years to complete eight scoreless innings.
After a week of frustration, catharsis.
“It was fun to just watch a clean baseball game,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers won, 10-0. They are 13-11.
They capped off a miserable homestand with one of their best games of the year. Shohei Ohtani swung his way into history. Andy Pages hit his first home run. Tyler Glasnow went eight scoreless.
Time of game: 2:18.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) April 21, 2024
The manager will be on the watch for Ohtani’s next brush with history this coming week. After all, Ohtani is just two home runs away from matching Roberts’ Dodgers record for most home runs by a Japanese-born player (seven).
“I want to break my manager’s record,” he said with a laugh through interpreter Will Ireton.
It’s one of several numbers that stand out for these Dodgers now that the season is 24 games in.
102 1/3
That’s how many innings the Dodgers bullpen had logged this season entering Sunday, by far the most in baseball. Related: Glasnow on Sunday gave the Dodgers just their eighth start this season in which their starter has gone at least six innings. That is squarely in the middle of the pack, though Los Angeles did get a headstart with their two-game set in Seoul, South Korea.
The Dodgers aren’t getting enough length from their starting pitchers. And when you’re running essentially a six-man rotation with a bullpen game plugged in, that’s a problem. Especially when Dodgers starters entered Sunday having faced just 68 batters a third time through the order, the third-fewest in baseball. Other than Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who started those games in Seoul, their innings leader is Ryan Yarbrough.
“Being mindful of early on in the season, building them up and managing the workload is one part of it,” Roberts said. “But also you’ve got to still be efficient to give me the opportunity to run you out there into the sixth or into the seventh inning. So, they’re going to be better. I think we’re doing a good job of managing the health, managing the workload. But it’s a two-way street too.”
The health hasn’t exactly been great, either. The Dodgers have 10 pitchers on the injured list.
221
That’s how many times Dodgers hitters had struck out this year entering Sunday, most in baseball. Their overall strikeout rate is more palatable (24.6 percent, ninth-worst in baseball), but it has reared its ugly head, especially after the top of the order. Beyond the top four spots in the lineup, the Dodgers have struck out 30.7 percent of the time, the most frequent in baseball within that split.
For a Dodgers lineup that already feels top-heavy and is coming off the scars of a disappointing offensive performance in October, it’s not ideal.
“Drag is a good word,” Roberts said. “Right now, (it’s) a little problematic.”
Especially with runners in scoring position.
.095
Yes, that was Shohei Ohtani’s batting average with runners in scoring position entering Sunday, which generated attention and even a meeting with Roberts and the club’s hitting coaches to ensure the two-time MVP is not overeager at the plate in those spots.
“The zone that I am swinging is a little bit larger with runners in scoring position,” Ohtani said. “With nobody on base, I’m pretty good at it. So it’s just (shrinking) down the zone.”
Ohtani will hit with runners in scoring position. He has done so throughout his career and has an expected batting average of .288 in those spots based on the quality of contact in his at-bats. Heck, without runners in scoring position, he entered Sunday hitting .437 (31 for 71).
The bigger issue, and a telltale figure for the Dodgers: No team in the majors has generated more opportunities with runners in scoring position (269 plate appearances), but the Dodgers are striking out 25.7 percent of the time in those spots. And despite their edge in plate appearances, they rank just sixth in runs scored in those spots (114).
Using tOPS+, which essentially compares a club’s offensive output within a certain situation to their output overall, the Dodgers have performed the third-worst in the majors with runners in scoring position compared to their baseline production.
The Dodgers, of course, opened those floodgates a bit on Sunday, jumping on several opportunities (going 5-for-7 with runners in scoring position) in an eight-run fifth inning to blow the game wide open.
(Photo of Tyler Glasnow: Jonathan Hui / USA Today)
