DETROIT — The rains came in Detroit on Sunday, watering the parched earth that the Dodgers’ offense had become.
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Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run home run – two runs at once! – and the Dodgers exploded, by their recent standards, for three more runs in the eighth inning to take a 6-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers and spark a glimmer of hope that their two-month cold snap might be left behind in August.
Sunday’s win allowed them to take the series in Detroit. But they lost ground in the playoff seeding race with this 2-4 road trip. They are three games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the top spot in the National League now and tied with the Atlanta Braves (who have the tiebreaker after winning the season series with the Dodgers).
The six runs doubled the Dodgers’ total for the previous three games combined. Hernandez’s home run was only the second of the trip (Tommy Edman also hit a two-run home run on Wednesday in Atlanta).
Heading into Sunday’s game — the start of which was delayed for almost an hour by rain showers — the Dodgers had left a trail of sad statistics from Atlanta to Detroit. They scored a total of 11 runs in the first five games of this road trip while leaving 50 runs on base.
The six primary hitters in their lineup – Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Hernandez, Max Muncy and Kyle Tucker – were 24 for 108 (.222) in the first five games of the trip with a grand total of 3 RBI among them (two by Freeman).
There were few signs that was about to change early against Tigers starter Framber Valdez. The Dodgers stranded two runners in the second inning. After Miguel Rojas’ one-out double put runners at second and third, Tucker and Kike’ Hernandez struck out.
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In the fourth inning, they scratched out what seemed to be their daily allotment of runs. Freeman singled with one out, went to third on Teoscar Hernandez’s single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Rojas.
But, Freeman led off the fourth inning with a double (the 579th of his career, breaking a tie for 24th on the all-time list with Wade Boggs). Teoscar Hernandez fouled off a curveball then got a changeup up and in from Valdez. He hammered it, sending it 434 feet into the left-center field stands.
In the eighth, they took advantage of Tigers reliever Tanner Rainey’s wildness, stringing together two walks, a hit batter, singles by Betts and Muncy and two run-scoring wild pitches for a three-run burst.
Given the precious gift of offensive support, Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow didn’t waste the dwindling resource. He held the Tigers to two hits and a walk over seven innings, striking out six.
Glasnow was more effective than overpowering, getting only seven swings-and-misses. But five of his seven innings required him to throw 12 pitches or fewer to retire the side, allowing him to cruise through seven innings on 85 pitches.
After giving up an RBI single to Kevin McGonigle in the fourth inning, he retired the final 10 batters he faced.
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More to come on this story