Dodgers overcome inside-the-park homer to salvage series split with Giants

LOS ANGELES — Baby steps.

The offense is still not firing on all cylinders and their defense – one player, in particular – was costly. But the Dodgers did enough things right to beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-2, on Thursday night, splitting their four-game series by winning back-to-back games for the first time in a week.

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“Getting there. Getting there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think there’s still more in there offensively. But I think we’re getting there. Obviously the most important thing is winning baseball games. To not be completely synced up and still find ways to win a game is good.”

They did it primarily with the return of their dominant starting pitching. Shohei Ohtani shut out the Giants for seven innings in Wednesday’s and Emmet Sheehan had one 73.2 mph blemish on his six innings of work – that was the exit velocity on Jung Hoo Lee’s two-run home run.

Sheehan was cruising along in the fifth inning, having allowed just one hit – a bloop single – in the first four. With a runner on and two outs, Lee sliced a soft line drive just inside the left-field line.

Teoscar Hernandez did not play it aggressively, expecting it to bounce into the stands for a ground-rule double. It did not. It bounced past Hernandez and rolled toward the left-field corner. Lee circled the bases as Hernandez ran it down. The relay throw beat Lee home but went over catcher Dalton Rushing’s head for a two-run inside-the-park home run that tied the score.

“It’s one of those that, you’re far from the ball, you don’t know what the ball is going to bounce,” Hernandez said. “Obviously, those plays, you expect the ball to bounce and go over the (side) wall. But it wasn’t the case. It just barely touched together with the wall, and unfortunately the ball stayed in the ballpark.

“There’s nothing I can do after that. You just have it in your mind for the next time that happens, same play. Just trying to create a better angle and stop the ball.”

It was the first inside-the-park home run at Dodger Stadium since Nick Ahmed did it for the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 9, 2018, the first ever by a Giant at Dodger Stadium and the first by a Giants player against the Dodgers since Larry Herndon did it against Fernando Valenzuela in San Francisco on Sept. 22, 1981.

It was one of just two hits Sheehan allowed in what Roberts called his best start of the season.

“It seems like every time he’s been going out there, he’s getting better. And today was his best outing in totality,” Roberts said. “The fastball was good, the life to it, the command of it. I thought Dalton did a great job with him, in the sense of when to use a curveball, when to use a changeup, when to use a fastball.”

Sheehan’s fastball velocity slipped as the game went on, settling slightly above his season average at 94.8 mph for the game. But he got 19 swings-and-misses, 10 on the fastball and seven on his slider.

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“I think part of the gameplan for sure is to hopefully throw some strikes with the slider, fastball, fill it up and make them make decisions,” Sheehan said.

The Dodgers (26-18) had failed to build a bigger lead than the 2-0 advantage that disappeared on Hernandez’s bungled play because their offense remains stuck in neutral too often.

Batting leadoff and playing DH in place of Shohei Ohtani, who was given the day off, Will Smith led off the game with a home run. In the second inning, Max Muncy drew a walk and worked his way around on the first of two doubles by Hernandez and an RBI single by Hyeseong Kim.

But Hernandez was trapped off third when Miguel Rojas tapped a grounder back to the mound and the potential for a multi-run inning disappeared.

Hernandez’s second double of the game (and one of his nine hits in his past 20 at-bats) came with one out in the fourth and went for naught when Rushing and Kim struck out. The Dodgers stranded another runner at third base in the fifth inning.

In the sixth inning, though, they were able to cash in.

After a leadoff walk to Andy Pages, Hernandez’s third hit of the game put runners at second and third with one out. Rushing struck out for the second out, but Alex Call came off the bench to pinch-hit for Kim and dumped a two-run single into right field.

But Call was the last to know it.

“It’s weird, because I felt like it was a good swing. It felt like I was inside of the ball. It felt like I hit it. Obviously I didn’t get all of it,” Call said. “But I guess I just didn’t quite see it off the bat, and I’m like looking for it, keep looking up, and then all of a sudden I hear the crowd get really loud. So I’m like ‘Okay, you better run.’”

Rojas followed with a 10-pitch at-bat that ended with an RBI single to make it a three-run inning – the Dodgers’ biggest inning during the seven-game homestand that ended Thursday. They finished the night 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position – the first game with more than two RISP hits since their 12-2 win in Houston over a week ago – after going 6 for 33 (.182) in those situations over the previous six games.

“They were all different,” Roberts said of the run-scoring hits from Kim, Call and Rojas at the bottom of the lineup. “I think Hyeseong got a ball that was at the belt line and went to left center which was great to see. Miguel just willed himself to get that hit, and then Alex Call, just being prepared and being able to hit the outfield grass.

“It was really good to see. All three of those at-bats were huge.”

Edgardo Henriquez, Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott protected the three-run lead with a hitless inning each.

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