MINNEAPOLIS — The Dodgers’ offensive struggles continued on Monday night, but Eric Lauer made sure he didn’t need much help to beat the Minnesota Twins.
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Lauer pitched six hitless innings and got relief help from Kyle Hurt and Tanner Scott, as the Dodgers opened their nine-game road trip with a 2-1 victory at Target Field after losing back-to-back games for the first time since May 11-12.
Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman hit solo homers against Twins starter Zebby Matthews (3-5), and Lauer and the bullpen made them stand up as the Dodgers (50-29) became the first MLB team to reach 50 wins this season despite losing outfielder Kyle Tucker and catcher Dalton Rushing to injuries early in the game.
“We didn’t put up any crooked numbers, but it was good to see just better at-bats,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Hopefully that carries over into tomorrow.”
Roberts elected to use righty Will Klein as an opener, perhaps keeping in mind that the Twins had ambushed Lauer (2-0 with the Dodgers, 3-5 overall) for seven runs when he faced them as a Toronto Blue Jay on April 11.
“Regardless of when that first inning is, there’s always a first inning, so I think my emphasis going into that inning is different,” Lauer said. “I was able to really focus in on the mindset shift that I wanted for that first inning and just continue to roll with that throughout the game.”
It took about 60 seconds for the Dodgers to jump ahead, as Ohtani blasted Matthews’ second pitch – an 87 mph changeup in the middle of the strike zone – into the seats in right field. It was his sixth leadoff homer this season and seventh homer in 17 games in June.
But the Twins’ own All-Star slugger tied it up in the bottom of the first when Byron Buxton went deep off Klein for his 25th home run of the season. Buxton, who is tied with Houston’s Yordan Alvarez for the American League home run lead, has eight in his past 15 games.
Matthews settled in, allowing just a walk and three harmless singles over the next four innings before Freeman led off the sixth with a solo shot to right-center, giving the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
The inning ended with two runners in scoring position, but Matthews struck out catcher Chuckie Robinson (more on him later) to limit the damage.
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Meanwhile, Lauer was handcuffing the Twins, who didn’t put more than one runner on base in any inning after the first. And even though the final numbers – three walks, two strikeouts in six innings – weren’t overpowering, Lauer was happy with the result, especially after his first outing against Minnesota this season.
“The first one they got me a little bit, so I definitely wanted to make sure I had better command of the zone and control of my stuff,” Lauer said. “And luckily enough, I was able to get some early outs and some quick outs.
“Putting a lot of emphasis on the defense today was a huge part,” he added, “and it’s something that we definitely can do, because we have a defense that’s that good.”
Hurt gave up a leadoff single to Austin Martin in the eighth but retired the next three batters. Scott then worked a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his 10th save.
Since scoring 28 runs in a three-game sweep in Pittsburgh, the Dodgers’ offense has been scuffling. Going into Monday might, they had scored just 31 runs in their past nine games (3.4 runs per game), going 5-4 in that stretch. Their nine hits on Monday matched their two-game total against the Baltimore Orioles in back-to-back losses over the weekend.
It didn’t help matters when two members of their starting lineup went down with injuries early in this one. First, Tucker bowed out in the second inning with lower back spasms. With one out in the inning, Tucker drew a walk and advanced to second on Tommy Edman’s single before he was replaced by pinch runner Alex Call, who went 2 for 3 and made a nice sliding catch to end the eighth inning.
Then Rushing took a foul tip off the mask in the second inning and was removed in the third inning to test him for a concussion. He passed all the tests but needs to wait 24 hours to be cleared. Robinson replaced Rushing on Monday and went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts.
With All-Star catcher Will Smith currently on the IL with a neck issue, Roberts said another catcher would be on hand Tuesday in case Rushing’s symptoms worsen. As for Tucker, he said he dealt with a similar issue during his time with Houston and recovered quickly. Roberts listed Tucker’s status as day to day.
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