Had the Dodgers clinched the National League West title by now, like they usually do, they could have given Shohei Ohtani Friday night off to bask in the afterglow of Thursday’s six-hit, three-homer, two-double, 10-RBI game in which he became the charter member of baseball’s 50-homer, 50-stolen base club.
But with the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, the two hottest teams in baseball since the All-Star break, within striking distance heading into the penultimate weekend of the season, Ohtani was in the lineup for the series opener against the last-place Colorado Rockies in Dodger Stadium.
“There are no days off right now,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “We have to keep winning baseball games. We’ve still got people on our heels, and I want our guys to continue to stay hungry.”
That’s not a problem for Ohtani, who seems insatiable at the plate. The slugger crushed his NL-leading 52nd homer in the fifth inning, turning a one-run deficit into a one-run lead, and he stole his 52nd base in the seventh, part of a three-hit night that helped push the Dodgers to a 6-4 win in Chavez Ravine.
Teoscar Hernández snapped a 3-3 tie in the sixth with his 30th homer and capped a two-run seventh with an RBI single, as the Dodgers (92-62) reduced their magic number to clinch their 11th division title in 12 years to five and maintained leads of four games over the Padres and six games over the Diamondbacks.
Ohtani, who hammered a chest-high, full-count, 92-mph fastball from Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland 423 feet for his game-turning homer, went nine for 10 with four homers and 12 RBIs in wins over Miami on Thursday and Colorado on Friday night.
“I think he’s ramped up his focus, I really do,” Roberts said of Ohtani. “Not to say that anyone is ever trying to make outs, but I think these last couple games, he’s locked in. To be able to cover that ball above the zone, go to the big part of the field, is pretty spectacular. And you look at the last week of homers, they’ve been balls down, so to be able to cover that, it’s just pretty remarkable.”
The Dodgers trailed 2-0 when Andy Pages led off the fifth with a 407-foot homer to left field off Freeland. Max Muncy doubled to left-center with one out, and Ohtani sent a 110-mph missile on what could have been Ball 4 over the center-field wall for a 3-2 Dodgers lead.
“It’s just the ability to generate bat speed, to catch up to that pitch,” Roberts said, when asked how a player can hit a ball that high, that hard. “And he didn’t see many pitches up there tonight. There were a lot of changeups down below. I’m sure Freeland was pretty surprised, as well, but [Shohei] is just on one right now.”
Shohei Ohtani receives a standing ovation before his first at-bat Friday against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Sam Hilliard’s two-out solo homer off Alex Vesia pulled Colorado even 3-3 in the top of the sixth, but Hernández’s homer made it 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth, and the Dodgers pushed the lead to 6-3 in the seventh.
Ohtani had a hand — or, rather, two churning legs — in the seventh-inning rally, following Tommy Edman’s walk and stolen base with an infield single in which he beat Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia to the bag to put runners on first and third with one out.
Ohtani stole second without a throw for his 29th consecutive stolen base without getting caught. Edman scored on Mookie Betts’ sacrifice fly to center, Ohtani taking third, and Hernández followed with an RBI infield single for a 6-3 lead.
“Shohei plays the game hard,” Roberts said. “He steals bases, he runs down the line hard. And if he didn’t come out of the box hard, it would have been two outs and a guy on third. Instead, it’s first and third, which allows Mookie to drive in a run with the sac fly. Those are little things that are a big deal.”
Evan Phillips (seventh) and Blake Treinen (eighth) threw scoreless innings as part of a bullpen game, and Michael Kopech gave up a leadoff homer to Toglia in the ninth before retiring three straight batters for his 14th save.
Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts makes a catch at the wall during the first inning Friday against the Colorado Rockies.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
The game began with a Betts web gem, the Dodgers right fielder racing to the wall to make a leaping grab of Charlie Blackmon’s first-inning drive to rob the leadoff man of extra bases.
Ohtani, with his teammates lined up in front of the dugout, received a lengthy standing ovation from a crowd of 49,073 as he was introduced in the bottom of the first, but with chants of “M-V-P!” echoing through the stadium, Ohtani struck out, beginning a four-inning stretch in which the Dodgers managed just two singles off Freeland.
The Rockies scored on Hunter Goodman’s groundout off Joe Kelly in the second inning and Blackmon’s two-out solo homer off Daniel Hudson in the fifth. Brusdar Graterol retired the side in order in the third and fourth innings.
Rehab report
Clayton Kershaw threw a 32-pitch bullpen session Friday, just two days after he threw 80 pitches off a bullpen mound in Miami, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the veteran left-hander is on the verge of returning from a toe injury that has sidelined him since Sept. 1.
“The most important part is getting it healthy, which it’s not yet,” Roberts said. “The other part is keeping his arm moving so you don’t lose the buildup he’s had. The last part is the execution, and it’s hard to have that when you’re not working with the full deck. He’s doing the best he can, and with each passing day, he gets more healthy and feels better.”
Reliever Anthony Banda, who suffered a left-hand fracture when he hit what the team called a “solid object” in frustration after giving up two runs in a Sept. 9 game, threw a bullpen session Thursday and is scheduled for another bullpen workout this weekend.
“The velocity was good and he’ll throw another one using his slider,” Roberts said of Banda, a left-hander who is 2-2 with a 3.23 ERA in 46 games. “He should be ready to go for us the day he’s eligible to come off the injured list.”