LOS ANGELES — Fearless and defiant, Teoscar Hernandez is pushing the limits now.
Hernandez was thrown out at home plate in an attempt at an inside-the-park home run in the third inning in a sign that he believes anything is possible.
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More restrained in the fifth inning, he lined an RBI single to right-center field that provided the go-ahead run in a 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.
The Dodgers’ current six-game winning streak has been played mostly without Shohei Ohtani. So Hernandez has stepped up to go 10 for 19 (.526) in the stretch with 10 RBIs to help spark a previously stagnant offense back to life.
Left-hander Tarik Skubal pitched into the eighth inning for the first time as a Dodger, as the team continues to gather the kind of September momentum it built last season after the dog days slowed their second half of the season to a crawl.
It was exactly one year ago when the Dodgers returned from a lackluster road trip to Pittsburgh and Baltimore and turned it on for a run that led to their second consecutive World Series title.
“There was the American (runner) that … recently said the third leg is the hardest leg,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Cole Hocker, who won the gold medal in the 1,500 meters at the 2024 Paris Olympics. “And I think it’s just kind of like that. Where, out of the gates, you get some momentum in the second leg. The fourth leg is the easiest because you see the finish line. And the third leg is always the hardest.”
The Dodgers have shown that they can relate.
“And now you can layer in the fact that we’ve had a lot of seasons together, played a lot of baseball. And I think that’s just kind of part of it, where you get that second wind in September,” Roberts added.
It was far from easy as the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz made the Dodgers earn it with a 444-foot home run and a throw from center field that put his full talent on display.
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The Dodgers took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning on a home run from Will Smith, his first in eight games since returning from the injured list because of neck inflammation.
They made it 2-0 one inning later when they loaded the bases on a single and two walks before Tommy Edman was hit by a pitch. Edman has batted out of the leadoff spot in the five games Ohtani has missed since last week.
De La Cruz’s two-run home run in the third tied the score at 2-2 and went more than halfway up the left-field pavilion. It was his 25th of the season, matching his career high. The Reds’ shortstop continued to show his talent in the third.
Hernandez hit a line drive to center field that skipped past the Reds’ Dane Myers and to the wall. All three Cincinnati outfielders converged on the ball on the warning track, got it to De La Cruz in shallow center field and he fired a strike to catcher Jose Trevino to cut down Hernandez at home with ease.
But Hernandez was back at it in the fifth inning when he lined a single to right-center to score Mookie Betts from second base for a 3-2 lead.
Edgardo Henriquez got the last two outs of the eighth inning and left-hander Tanner Scott worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth inning to earn his 22nd save.
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More to come on this story.