kirby yates

SAN FRANCISCO — Teoscar Hernández pumped his fist. Ben Rortvedt let out a scream. Mookie Betts put some oomph on the end of the Dodgers’ arm-waving, hip-shaking, hit celebration.

After struggling for so long in high-leverage situations, the team’s offense finally had reason to celebrate.

For weeks now, the Dodgers have technically been in a tight division race.

The real battle, however, has often been with themselves.

At a time of the year typically dedicated to scoreboard watching and monitoring the standings, the team had instead been preoccupied by its own inconsistent play. Chief among their recent problems: Capitalizing on scoring opportunities.

In a 13-7 defeat of the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, they finally vanquished those demons.

After trailing by three runs early, and reaching rock bottom again after coming up empty with the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning, the Dodgers mounted the kind of rally that had so often been missing during their lackluster second half of the season, scoring six runs in the top of the fifth inning to key what felt like a statement win.

“A lot of guys put together really good at-bats,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We found a way to keep the ball moving forward, keep moving to the next guy. It was really impressive.”

Early in Saturday’s game, the Dodgers (83-65) had honed a sound approach. They stressed Giants ace Logan Webb. They stayed alive in two-strike counts. They worked long at-bats and put runners on base.

The missing ingredient, as usual, had been the big hits needed to build a big inning. Then, in the top of the fifth, it all so suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped.

That’s what happened in the second, when Webb wiggled out of trouble by getting Miguel Rojas to hit an infield pop-up and Rortvedt to roll into a double-play, preserving the 4-1 lead the Giants had taken against Clayton Kershaw in a 36-pitch first inning.

“It’s real easy, if you don’t get any runs in that inning, to sit there and start pouting and start letting the emotion take over,” Muncy said. “It’s tough to dig out of that hole.”

This time, however, the Dodgers came back from the dead.

Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run in the third inning Saturday against the Giants.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

The turnaround started in the third, when Shohei Ohtani bat-flipped a leadoff home run that traveled 454 feet (the longest of his 49 long balls this season) and Hernández belted an RBI double off the wall with two outs.

That momentum carried into the fifth, when the Dodgers’ recently unproductive offense suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped the bases-loaded script.

After a walk from Betts, a single from Freddie Freeman and a walk from Muncy chased Webb from the game, Hernández came to the plate against Giants reliever José Buttó.

Hernández quickly fell behind to newly inserted Giants reliever José Buttó, taking a first-pitch fastball before fanning on a slider out of the zone. But after laying off another slider in the dirt, Hernández got a mistake, with Buttó leaving a fastball up and over the plate. Hernández lined it to the gap, where center fielder Luis Matos struggled to get a bead. It dropped in under Matos’ diving attempt, rolling past him for a two-run double that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.

“Getting closer to October, everybody is trying to do the little things, not trying to do too much and just getting on base for the next guy,” said Hernández, who was one of three Dodgers hitters to record three hits and lead the way with three RBIs.

“That was a big difference today. Everybody was into the game. It didn’t happen in the second inning, but we came back and started fighting again, every at-bat and scored some runs.”

Indeed, from that point on, the floodgates burst open. Michael Conforto lifted a sacrifice fly to right. Rortvedt lined another two-run double to left-center. Betts bounced a run-scoring single up the middle.

By the time the side was retired, 11 Dodgers had come to the plate. Eight had reached safely. Six had come around to score.

An exorcism, exhale and sigh of relief for the Dodgers’ long-scuffling offense.

“That was awesome,” said Kershaw, who exited after the third. “For them to grind out at-bats — especially after me putting them in a hole after the first inning — getting guys on base, not trying to do too much, taking what they’re giving you, walks, hits, all the things, it was really impressive.”

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw reacts after giving up an RBI single in the first inning Saturday.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Over their 26-33 stretch since July 4, the Dodgers had lost so many games like this one, letting bad outings from starters or wasted opportunities early in games send them into spirals that lingered for days (and sometimes weeks) after.

But on this night, every moment of adversity was met with an answer.

After Kirby Yates gave back three runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers responded with another three-spot in the sixth punctuated by an RBI double from Rojas. When the bullpen needed someone to calm the waters, rookie left-hander Justin Wrobleski produced 2⅓ scoreless innings.

Even on a day that Will Smith was placed on the injured list (finally being shelved after battling a bone bruise on his hand for the last 10 days) and Muncy left the game after taking a pitch to the head (he passed postgame concussion protocols, and will have a scheduled day off Sunday), the Dodgers didn’t wilt.

Instead, their lineup finally produced as expected, going seven for 15 with runners in scoring position, producing 11 of their 23 combined hits and walks with two strikes, and fueling a win that keeps the team 2½ games up in the National League West standings — all while helping ease concerns about their recently inconsistent offense.

“I just don’t see why we can’t do that, as far as approach, on a nightly basis,” manager Dave Roberts said. “With two strikes, you got to give something up. And I think for me tonight, I saw us give up the pull side. And then you’re starting to get hits to the big part of the field, hits the other way to the other gap, winning pitches. We did that all night long. Good stuff.”

MILWAUKEE — During the Dodgers’ season-long five-game losing streak this week, manager Dave Roberts cited a lack of “fight” from his lineup as the most troubling trend in the team’s recent skid.

On Wednesday in Milwaukee, more fight finally returned — only for the Brewers to still land the knockout punch.

In a 3-2 loss at American Family Field that extended the Dodgers’ losing streak to six games, the lineup once again scuffled in a five-hit performance while closer Tanner Scott blew a ninth-inning lead to waste Tyler Glasnow’s encouraging return from the injured list.

It was a grind of a game, with the Dodgers scoring their only runs on a bases-loaded walk following a hit-and-run play and a sacrifice fly that briefly gave them a 2-1 lead. Alas, Scott gave up a game-tying RBI single to Andrew Vaughn in the ninth, Jackson Chourio walked it off with another single against Kirby Yates in the bottom of the 10th, sending the scuffling Dodgers their longest losing skid since April 2019.

“Knowing the rough patch [we’re in], it’s really hard to take this one, because you just want to stop it,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said.

“We had them where we wanted them,” Roberts echoed. “We just couldn’t finish it.”

Indeed, even on a day the Dodgers struggled to score despite generating more baserunners and cutting down on their recent binge of strikeouts, Glasnow’s solid return from the injured list had the club in position to win for most of the day.

Making his first start since going on the injured list in April because of a shoulder injury, and just his 28th start in two years with the Dodgers since signing a $136.5-million contract two winters ago, the lanky right-hander pitched decently over his five innings, giving up two hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Glasnow ran into trouble in the second inning, when Christian Yelich singled on a first-pitch fastball, Isaac Collins drew a full-count walk, and both executed a double-steal to move into scoring position. A 10-pitch walk to Caleb Durbin — ending on a curveball that never ducked into the strike zone — loaded the bases with one out.

However, Glasnow responded, jamming Jake Bauers with a sinker for a pop out before blowing Joey Ortiz away with an elevated 96 mph heater.

That sequence was Glasnow at his best: Going after hitters with his premium velocity, and showing no signs of the tentativeness — or, as Roberts described it in his pregame address, “search mode” — that has often derailed his Dodgers career.

“[I’m focusing on] going out and pitching, just toeing the mound and kind of getting into that rhythm and keeping the routine,” Glasnow said afterward. “Just going out, be athletic and trust the trainers, strength room, stay healthy and just keep pitching.”

As Glasnow settled into a rhythm, however, the Dodgers (56-38) continued to toil at the plate.

Having scored only one run in four of their previous five games, a shorthanded lineup, which got Tommy Edman back from injury but once again was without Teoscar Hernández in the starting lineup, struggled to get a beat on crafty veteran left-hander José Quintana.

With only a 90-mph fastball and a flurry of funky off-speed pitches, the 36-year-old navigated the first four innings without giving up a hit.

A breakthrough finally came in the fifth inning. After Rojas drew a leadoff walk (he also had two singles Wednesday), the Dodgers executed a well-timed hit-and-run play, drawing the second baseman out of position just as Esteury Ruiz lined a single through the hole he vacated. With two outs, James Outman then checked his swing just enough to draw a full-count walk, loading the bases for Shohei Ohtani to plate the game’s first run on a four-pitch free pass (benefitting from a couple of borderline ball calls).

And while that 1-0 lead didn’t last long — in the bottom of the fifth, Glasnow walked leadoff man Bauers, moved him to second with a balk, then watched helplessly as Bauers stole third and scored on a throw that bounced to the outfield — the Dodgers went back in front in the seventh when Mookie Betts lifted a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers, though, squandered opportunities to stretch the lead from, leaving the bases loaded to end the seventh inning before stranding more baserunners in both the eighth and ninth.

“I thought the way we competed, I liked that,” Roberts said. “Took some good at-bats. I thought we fought. But couldn’t put a crooked number up.”

That left Scott with too little margin to complete a four-out save. While the left-hander stranded a runner at second base he inherited in the eighth, three ninth-inning singles from the Brewers tied the score, culminating with a broken-bat, bloop single from Vaughn that made it 2-2.

Then, after Brewers closer Trevor Megill struck out the side in the top of the 10th, Yates surrendered the game-winning single to Churio in the bottom half of the inning, dealing the Dodgers their second-straight series sweep and an ever-mounting sense of frustration entering the final days before the All-Star break.

“We can’t really feel sorry about ourselves, because there’s a lot of season left, and we know what we’re looking for,” Rojas said. “We’re looking to win another championship, and playing this kind of baseball is not gonna get us there.”