O Dodger continued two important trends on Saturday night.
Shohei Ohtani stayed hot, hitting another home run against his former team in the Dodgers’ 7-2 victory about the Angels at Dodger Stadium.
The bottom-seeded Dodgers also remained productive, managing six hits and five runs in the final four spots to split a two-game Freeway Series weekend.
Ohtani’s home run continued his hot week at the plate. In seven games since last Sunday – in the last six, he has been the team’s leadoff hitter in place of the injured Mookie Betts – the slugger is batting .481 (13-for-27) with seven home runs, 12 RBIs, seven walks and just two strikeouts .
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His two-run homer on Saturday was a line rocket that landed in the middle of the right-field pavilion. Traveling about 459 feet, it marked its fourth explosion of at least 450 feet this week. And it gave him big flies in both games this weekend against the Angels — his first against the club since he signed with the Dodgers in the offseason.
While Ohtani may be in charge of the Dodgers’ offense, it’s a previously struggling lower half of the order that is helping fuel the team’s recent resurgence at the plate.
A month ago, the club’s 6-9 hitters were among the worst in the majors, compiling a .194 batting average through the first 46 games of the season, ranking better than only the Oakland Athletics.
“It’s still a very good lineup and we know it’s going to change,” said second baseman Gavin Lux, one of many to blame for the group’s struggles at the start of the season in late May. “But yeah, I think we all expect more from ourselves.”
Fast forward a month and the Dodgers (48-31) have seen their fortunes truly change.
Entering Saturday, hitters in the team’s bottom half were batting .243 since May 17, ranking a solid 14th in MLB during that span.
Then, in the victory over the Angels (30-46), they played one of their best collective games, with two hits each from Lux, Miguel Rojas and Cavan Biggio, in addition to two walks from Jason Heyward.
Lux, the No. 8 hitter, opened the scoring with a huge home run in the bottom of the third, just his second long walk of the season and first since May 7.
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Rojas, batting seventh, has extended one of the most intriguing statistical trends of the season: In games in which he has hit, the Dodgers are 22-0.
Biggio had his best game as a Dodger on the nine-hole, continuing to fill in for injured third baseman Max Muncy – whose return from an oblique strain remains uncertain, lasting much longer than initially anticipated (Muncy said one problem is that every your oblique strain was affected, not just an isolated area).
No. 6 hitter Heyward, whose return from a back injury on May 17 was a key factor in the bottom half’s recent production, also helped the cause with his two walks, keeping his OPS this season above .800.
The lineup was so good that it allowed Roberts to start a new trend that should become more common the rest of the season.
Team ace Tyler Glasnow got off to a stellar start, giving up just two runs (one earned) on two hits in a seven-inning, 10-strikeout gem. However, with the Dodgers leading 7-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Roberts decided to retire him after just 74 pitches.
The reason: Glasnow is now 100 innings this season, just 20 short of the career high he set a season ago.
The Dodgers are not planning to jump start right field or take any breaks before October. But they will be “mindful” of their workload in a smaller way, Roberts said.
Thanks to Ohtani’s explosion at the top of the lineup and continued ample production at the bottom, Saturday provided the perfect opportunity.
This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
