Dave Roberts seemed a little conflicted before Sunday’s series finale against the Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium.
The coach didn’t want to put too much emphasis on an early May series against a potential playoff opponent, saying, “I just want to win as many games as we can,” but in evaluating a “great” trip in which the Dodger won seven of nine games and a homestand that began with two wins over the Braves, he changed his mind.
“It’s time to be greedy,” Roberts said, “so, yes, we are trying to sweep them away.”
The gluttonous Dodgers did just that, starting strong with the left James Paxtona pair of bookend home runs Shohei Ohtani and a two-run shot Teoscar Hernandez for a 5-1 victory that completed a three-game sweep over the Braves before a crowd of 52,733.
“It was Cinco de Mayo, the tickets were sold out, the fans were great… it was good to see our guys playing at the level and energy that the fans had throughout the series,” Roberts said. -run homer [in the first inning Sunday] to put us on the board. That kind of set the tone.”
Ohtani also put an exclamation point on the sweep by demolishing a first-pitch fastball from reliever AJ Minter in the eighth inning, sending a 464-foot home run to center field — his longest of the season — to give him 17 multi-game spans. career homer and increase the Dodgers’ lead to 5-1.
“I think I have to hit the ball twice to get there,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “This is definitely next level stuff. It’s really special to have a guy like Shohei in the lineup, a guy who can do that kind of thing.”
Ohtani’s 10th home run of the season sailed past the blue tarp covering a section of seats in the left-field pavilion, just to the left of center square.
“No, no,” Roberts said, when asked if he had ever seen a left-handed hitter hit a ball over that tarp. “He keeps doing things we’ve never seen before. A fast ball from Minter, a middleweight, and he took a really good swing. He was doing 111 mph right off the bat.
“That’s profound. People don’t hit the ball out there, whether you’re right-handed or left-handed, day game, night game. The wind was really pushing left to right, so he really got into it.”
Paxton gave up one earned run and five hits in 6⅔ innings, striking out three and walking two, the latter figure a significant improvement for a veteran who walked 22 hits — eight of them in an April 14 game against San Diego — in 25⅔ innings of his first five matches.
See more information: See every home run that Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has hit this season
“It felt great – I finally found some rhythm,” said Paxton, who improved to 4-0 with a 3.06 ERA. “We’ve been working a lot between games trying to figure this out, and it’s good to make some progress. … Hanging out with guys always makes the game harder, so being able to get into the strike zone and not hang out with so many guys was cool.”
The Dodgers won their 11th game in 13 tries, a stretch in which their starters gave up 17 earned runs in 75⅓ innings for a 2.03 ERA and turned in nine quality starts.
Joe Kelly got the bottom of the seventh, striking out Adam Duvall, and right-hander Blake Treinen, making his debut in 2024 after missing most of the 2022 and 2023 seasons because of shoulder injuries, retired the team in order with one strikeout , whiffing Jarred Kelenic with a nasty 85 mph inside slider in the eighth.
“It was good to see him back, see him be efficient and make shots when he needed to,” Roberts said of Treinen. “It looked like he used his entire pitching mix, and that Wiffle ball he threw to Kelenic was pretty impressive. I’m just glad he didn’t have to go through that first.”
With closer Evan Phillips placed on the 15-day injured list because of a right hamstring strain before the game, right-hander Michael Grove retired from the lineup in the ninth to complete the quick 2-hour, 7-minute game.
The Dodgers had just five hits, four of them by Ohtani, who followed a first-inning walk by Mookie Betts by hitting a curveball up and in to Braves left-hander Max Fried 412 feet over the center field wall for two. -Run, Homer.
See more information: Once almost traded to the Angels, Andy Pages is the Dodgers’ newest rookie star
Ohtani also homered in the third inning and scored in the sixth, ahead of Teoscar Hernández’s two-run homer to right field, his eighth long ball of the season giving the Dodgers a 4–0 lead.
The Dodgers supported Paxton with several excellent defensive plays, the biggest of which came in the top of the seventh when Hernández hit Matt Olson’s leadoff shot off the right-field wall and sent a fly throw to Betts at second base to knock down Olson, who was trying to stretch. the hit into a double.
The strong throw saved a run, with Marcell Ozuna following with a home run to right center field to bring the Braves up 4-1.
Third baseman Kiké Hernández fielded Ozuna’s second-inning chopper on the outfield grass and made a long one-hop throw to first for the out, Betts and Rojas turned a smooth double play on Chadwick’s third-inning grounder Tromp, and center fielder Andy Pages battled a hot sun while catching seven fly balls.
“The defense,” Roberts said, “was great.”
The Braves arrived in Los Angeles with a major league-best 20-9 record on Friday. A three-game sweep in which the Dodgers (23-13) outscored, outscored and outscored the Braves while outscoring them 20-6 left Atlanta two games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East.
“When you play against good teams that played really good baseball before they came here, and we do something like this, it’s always important for the team’s confidence,” Rojas said. “But we all understand that it’s May and although these games are really important, we’re looking for something bigger.
“We will have to do this again in October to get to where we want to be. Remember, we beat the Diamondbacks last year, the whole year, and we couldn’t finish it in October. So right now, we celebrate the small victories, but that doesn’t make our year.”
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
