teoscar hernández

The Dodgers walked into a packed home stadium when their World Series parade was over, waving to an adoring crowd that viewed them as more than back-to-back champions.

They were beloved Angelenos.

Many of the players are on a first-name basis with the city, and if they aren’t, they’re identified by a nickname.

Freddie, Mookie and Shohei.

Yoshi and Roki.

Miggy Ro and Kiké.

Players who were once strangers are now extended members of hundreds of thousands of families.

Ordinarily, a team as old as the Dodgers would have to consider a roster makeover. Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas will be 37 by the start of the next World Series. Max Muncy will be 36, Kiké Hernández 35, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández 34 and Shohei Ohtani 32.

But under these circumstances, how could the Dodgers think of breaking up their team?

How could they unload any of their superstars, regardless of how much they could decline in the next year? How could they not retain their key free agents, regardless of how old they are?

They can’t, they can’t and they can’t.

The Dodgers have to run this back — again.

“Obviously, we would love everybody to come back,” Freeman said.

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Muncy has a $10-million team option for next season. The Dodgers have to pick it up.

Rojas and Kiké Hernández are free agents. The Dodgers have to re-sign them.

Freeman won’t be making the calls on his teammates, of course. The decisions will be made by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who was characteristically evasive when asked about the efforts the Dodgers would make to keep their out-of-contract players.

“Obviously, guys who have been here and been a big part of it start with a major upper hand,” Friedman said. “That being said, they’re free agents. They’ve earned the right to go out and talk to the 29 other teams as well.”

Muncy doesn’t have a choice to leave if the Dodgers exercise his option, but Rojas and Kiké Hernández have said they would like to return next season.

Whatever Friedman decides shouldn’t preclude the Dodgers from shopping on the free-agent market, with Kyle Tucker and Steven Kwan being potential additions to their outfield.

But the nucleus of the Dodgers would be even older than it was this year when their collective age presented a variety of problems.

Their 18-inning victory in Game 3 clearly diminished them more than it did the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the next two games. In retrospect, that should have been expected, as the Dodgers struggled to maintain consistency on offense over a grinding six-month regular season.

While Betts transformed into one of the league’s best defensive shortstops, he experienced a sharp offensive decline. Muncy was limited to 100 games because of injuries. Teoscar Hernández wasn’t close to being the same player he was last year.

There were times that even Ohtani started to show the effects of being on the wrong side of 30. Ohtani’s father acknowledged this reality in a congratulatory open letter he wrote to his son, which was published in the Monday edition of Sports Nippon.

“Shohei, you’re 31 years old,” Toru Ohtani wrote in Japanese. “I think that as a baseball player, you’re in your prime, but there will come a time when you have to decide between pitching and hitting. When you can’t pitch anymore, you can be an outfielder. I think that if you practice, you can definitely do it.”

That being said, the team has to be kept together.

A championship can force teams into sentimental decisions, as was the case last winter when the Dodgers re-signed Teoscar Hernández to a three-year, $66-million contract.

This winter, they will have to settle similar disputes between their hearts and minds. They should listen to their hearts.

The players deserve it. The fans demand it.

Teoscar Hernández doesn’t believe in ghosts.

But just the same, the Dodgers outfielder declined to stay with the team at the historic — and allegedly haunted — Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee during the first two games of the National League Championship Series against the Brewers this week.

Hernández told reporters before Game 2 on Tuesday that his wife, Jennifer, was the one who insisted on finding somewhere to stay other than the 137-year-old hotel that has been the source of spooky tales from MLB players for decades.

“I don’t believe in ghosts. I have stayed there before. I never see anything or hear anything,” Hernández said. “But my wife is on this trip, and she says she doesn’t want to stay in there. So we have to find another hotel.”

Hernández added, however, that his wife told him that she has heard from other players and their wives that there had been “something happening” over at the team hotel.

Asked to elaborate, Hernández said he had been told that in “some of the rooms, the lights, goes off and on, and the doors — there are noises, footsteps. … I’m not the guy that I’m gonna be here saying, ‘Oh yeah, I experienced that before,’ because I’m not, and I don’t think I’m gonna experience that.’”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked during his pregame media availability Tuesday if he had any ghost stories to share from the team’s stay at the Pfister.

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“I don’t,” Roberts said. “Those stories went away when I was about 10 years old. So, no, not anymore. I’m OK to go to bed now.”

Over the years, not everyone has been as at ease about staying at the creepy old digs. In 2005, then-Dodgers closer Eric Gagne told The Times’ Steve Henson that the place freaked him out.

“It’s old, weird and scary,” Gagne said. “It’s very creepy. I don’t sleep well there.”

Henson also noted at the time that former Dodgers third baseman Adrián Beltré had “reported a ghostly presence turning on lights and tickling his toes” during a 2001 stay at the Pfister. Fellow Times staff writer Kevin Baxter reported in 2007 that Beltre Beltronce insisted on sleeping with a bat for protection after he had a brush with a ghost” at the hotel.

One-time Dodgers infielder Michael Young told ESPN that he once heard loud stomping noises in his room while he was trying to sleep.

“So I yelled out, ‘Hey! Make yourself at home. Hang out, have a seat, but do not wake me up, OK?’” Young said. “After that, I didn’t hear a thing for the rest of the night.”

Current Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts decided a couple of years ago he doesn’t want to take any chances at the spooky spot.

“I don’t know if they’re real or not, nor do I care,” Betts said of the hotel’s alleged ghosts after a 2023 game against the Brewers in Milwaukee. “My boys are here, so we just got an Airbnb. That’s really it.”

Betts admitted to the Orange County Register that the Airbnb rental was “just in case” the scary stories were true and “it was a good excuse” not to stay at the creepy old building.

Last, during another series in Milwaukee, Betts appeared to confirm that he will continue to find alternative lodging for road games against the Brewers.

“You don’t want to mess with them,” Betts said of the Pfister’s alleged ghosts. “I’m staying at an Airbnb again. That part is not gonna change.”

The Dodgers more than survived their two games in Milwaukee this week, riding dominant performances by starting pitchers Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to take a 2-0 National League Championship Series lead over the Brewers.

The Dodgers who checked in to the Pfister Hotel also appear to have survived another stay in downtown Milwaukee. And with the next three games (if that many are necessary) taking place at Dodger Stadium, they have the chance to make sure they avoid returning to the (allegedly) haunted haunt this postseason.

PHILADELPHIA — Two innings into Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, the Dodgers had been punched in the mouth.

The Phillies had scored three runs off Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the second. Citizens Bank Park was shaking on the scale of a small earthquake. And the Dodgers’ offense was doing nothing against Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez.

In the opening contest of a heavyweight series, the defending champions were down.

But, in their typically resilient fashion, far from out.

In a come-from-behind, statement-sending 5-3 win, the Dodgers did again what carried them a championship last October.

They shrugged off the early adversity, with Ohtani conceding no further damage over a six-inning start, finishing his postseason pitching debut with nine strikeouts and four monumental scoreless innings.

Their lineup chipped away at the deficit, knocking Phillies ace and Cy Young Award candidate Sánchez out of the game on Kiké Hernández’s two-out, two-run double in the sixth.

Then, they landed the actual knockout blow, with Teoscar Hernández flipping the game — and the feel of this best-of-five series — with a two-out, three-run, stadium-silencing home run in the seventh.

Game 2 will be back here in South Philadelphia on Monday night. And the Dodgers will go into it with, given the way Saturday started, an unexpected 1-0 series lead.

It could not have started worse for the Dodgers.

Sánchez was carving them up with wicked sinkers and fall-off-the-table changeups. Ohtani, meanwhile, ran into early trouble in the bottom of the second.

The inning started with a walk to Alec Bohm, when Ohtani missed on a full-count fastball. That was followed by a single from Brandon Marsh, who got a down-the-middle fastball in a 2-and-2 count and shot a base hit to center.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani delivers during the third inning against the Phillies on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

As Ohtani tried to settle down, a chorus of taunting chants — Sho-Hei! Sho-Hei! — came raining down.

A crowd of 45,777 was ready to explode.

Then, J.T. Realmuto gave them the chance.

After missing with a first-pitch slider to Realmuto, Ohtani left a 100.2-mph heater in the dead heart of the zone. The location rendered the velocity irrelevant. Realmuto barreled it up, sent a line drive screaming into right-center, then chugged all the way to third after the ball got past Teoscar Hernández in the gap.

A fly ball two batters later — which worked for a sacrifice fly thanks to Hernández’s inability to cut the ball off — made it 3-0.

In the moment (and with the way Sánchez was pitching early), the lead felt almost insurmountable.

The Dodgers, however, didn’t wilt.

The turnaround began with Ohtani, who followed Realmuto’s triple by retiring the next 10 he faced. His only other trouble came in the fifth, when the bottom two hitters in the Phillies’ order reached base with one out. But even then, Ohtani buckled down, getting Trea Turner to line out and Kyle Schwarber to swing through a curveball that ended the inning.

Eventually, the Dodgers’ offense found life too.

With two outs in the sixth, and Sánchez having given up only two hits all night, Freddie Freeman sparked a rally with a five-pitch walk. Tommy Edman took a sinker the other way to put two aboard.

That brought up Kiké Hernández, who had already begun reprising his role of October hero with four hits in the team’s wild-card series sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.

On cue, Hernández came up clutch again, jumping on a slider from Sánchez that caught a little too much plate and roping it down the left-field line for a two-run double — the latter run coming when Edman ran through a stop sign at third base.

Just like that, Sánchez was knocked out of the game. What had been a raucous crowd earlier in the night suddenly grew tense.

That dread only grew in the next-half inning, when Ohtani completed his start with a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth.

Then, in the seventh, the Dodgers made the comeback complete — getting the biggest swing of the night from another postseason savior, Teoscar Hernández.

Teoscar Hernández celebrates after hitting a three-run home run in the seventh inning for the Dodgers against the Phillies on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

After Andy Pages led off the inning with a single and Will Smith (who entered the game in the fifth inning for his first appearance of this postseason after missing the wild card round with a fractured hand) was hit by a pitch from David Robertson, the Phillies summoned top left-handed reliever Matt Strahm to face Ohtani.

As he did in his prior three at-bats, Ohtani struck out, taking a fastball down the middle, punching out in four-consecutive at-bats in a game for only the second time in his MLB career.

But by getting Strahm on the mound, the Dodgers had favorable right-on-left matchups behind him. Mookie Betts couldn’t take advantage, popping out to third for the second out of the inning. Hernández, on the other hand, didn’t miss.

On an elevated fastball in a 1-and-0 count, Hernández launched a towering fly ball to the right-center field gap. The Phillies outfield went back on it. But the ball kept carrying into the stands. The ballpark went silent. Hernández practically glided around the bases.

The drama didn’t end there.

Projected Game 4 starter Tyler Glasnow came on in relief in the seventh, when he retired the side on a double-play grounder, then returned for the eighth, when he loaded the bases on a single and two walks. That threat was extinguished by left-hander Alex Vesia, who induced a harmless fly ball from pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa to quiet a stirring crowd once again.

The ninth inning then belonged to Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old converted rookie starter who has ascended to closing duties less than two weeks after returning from a months-long shoulder injury. He picked up the save in straightforward fashion, retiring the side in order for his first career save.

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.”

It was picture day at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, one of those quaint baseball traditions that has endured long past its usefulness.

So the team set up three rows of aluminum risers in shallow center field and the players, wearing impossibly white uniforms, filed out of the clubhouse just before 3 p.m., passing up batting practice to pose for the cameras. For a sport that thrives on routine, the afternoon had a unique last-day-of-school vibe.

“It’s a weird day,” manager Dave Roberts agreed.

But picture day also serves to bring the end of the season into tighter focus since it usually happens in the final three weeks. And the players who climb those risers are the ones who will decide the team’s postseason fate.

That was especially true for the Dodgers, who rode another splendid pitching performance — this one from Emmet Sheehan — to a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Sheehan, bidding for a spot in the playoff rotation, was backed by four homers, including a pair of solo shots from Teoscar Hernández, who had his first three-hit night in more than a month.

The win, the team’s third in a row, coupled with San Diego’s loss to Cincinnati, expanded the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to two games over the second-place Padres with just 17 left to play.

“It’s getting down to the wire,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers’ starting pitching is already in postseason form, posting a 1.41 ERA over the past five games. On Tuesday it was Sheehan’s turn on the mound and he set down the first 15 Rockies in order, becoming the third Dodger starter in four games to take a no-hitter into the sixth inning.

He wound up scattering three hits and a walk over seven innings, striking out nine to earn his fourth victory in five decisions. The win was also Sheehan’s fourth victory in as many appearances against Colorado.

Roberts said his team’s starting pitchers are all competing to one-up each other, giving the significance of the games now.

“They’re feeding off one another,” he said. “The pitchers are of the mind that these are very, very important games. It’s kind of the playoff mentality. The catchers are calling games in that vein.

“The defense has been really focused getting off the baseball. There’s a heightened level of focus across the board.”

That even spread to the offense, said Mookie Betts, whose two-run home run in the third extended his streak of reaching base safely to 15 straight games.

Mookie Betts is very happy after his two-run homer in the third inning.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s really neat being on this side,” Betts, who had multiple RBIs for a fourth straight game, said of watching the Dodger pitchers work. “If you kind of take a step back and look at it, there’s a lot of teams that would ask for something like this. Those guys give us opportunity to win every day.

“It’s really important for us as on the offensive side not to take that for granted.”

Although the Dodgers entered Tuesday second to last in the majors with an average of 3.14 runs a game in September, against Colorado starter Germán Márquez (3-13), whose ERA (6.31) looks more like a mortgage rate, they ran out to a 5-0 lead after five innings. As a result the focus turned to Sheehan, who needed just 59 pitches to cruise through five perfect innings, striking out five.

“I probably knew,” Sheehan, pitching on the 60th anniversary of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game, said when asked if he was aware he was more than halfway to matching that. “But I was definitely not thinking about it.”

The right-hander said he tried to cross up the Rockies by moving away from his fastball and going with a slider to the glove side instead.

“I felt like I was executing the slider pretty well,” he said. “The more I throw it, the easier it gets to get it to that spot. It’s an important pitch for me.”

Kyle Karros ended the suspense when he lined Sheehan’s first pitch of the sixth inning over a leaping Max Muncy at third for a single. Two more singles brought Karros around to score, ending the shutout as well.

Still Sheehan (6-3) was more than good enough to win for the fourth time in five decisions, lowering his ERA to 3.32 and forcing his way into the conversation over a role on the postseason roster.

“He’s unflappable,” Roberts said. “He knows he’s talented and he knows how to execute pitches. He’s got good stuff. No moment is too big for him. So I can’t speak to what role, but I know that he’s a viable option for us now and going forward.”

Tuesday’s win also left Sheehan unbeaten on picture day, something he nearly skipped as the scheduled starting pitcher.

“I wasn’t going go out there,” he said. “But I was like, I missed the last two. I gotta be out there.”

After all, it’s a tradition.

PITTSBURGH — It was not quite a benching. But it served as a reminder nonetheless.

Last year, in many ways, Teoscar Hernández was the heart and soul of the Dodgers. Not their best player. Nor their biggest star. But someone who provided effervescent vibes in the clubhouse, veteran leadership in the dugout and clutch hits in several of the season’s biggest moments at the plate.

“Teo is a guy that we counted on a lot last year,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s a guy that I really admire, because he can balance the fun part of baseball but also have that edge.”

This year, however, frustration has doused much of the fun. Struggles have dulled his usual edge.

Between injuries, slumps, defensive miscues and mechanical swing flaws, Hernández has endured one of his worst career seasons. He is batting just .247, his lowest since 2019. He has a .734 OPS, the lowest of his career and just a smidge above league-average. His limited range in right field has led to a flurry of dropped balls and some of the poorest defensive metrics of any big leaguer at the position. And going back to the last week of June, no other Dodger player (not even Michael Conforto) has been worth fewer wins above replacement than Hernández’s negative-0.5 mark, according to Fangraphs.

“For me, not being the same as last year is a little frustrating,” Hernández said. “I don’t want to be like that. I want to be better than last year. But it’s baseball. It’s life. You just have to keep working, keep trusting in yourself and the things that you can do to help the team.”

Last weekend, however, Roberts had a different idea. In the midst of Hernández’s latest cold spell, the outfielder was unexpectedly benched for Sunday’s series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“He’s an every-day guy,” Roberts said that day. “But I do think that where we’re at, you’ve got to perform, too, to warrant being out there every single day.”

The move wasn’t punitive, with Roberts also accounting for Monday’s off day in hopes “a two-day reset could help” the two-time All-Star.

But still, with the stretch run of the season nearing, the manager was dropping a hint to his star slugger as well.

“I think we’ve lost a little bit of that edge over the last couple months,” Roberts said Tuesday of Hernández, having had “numerous conversations” to communicate the same message with him personally.

“For me, I want to see that edge, that fight, that fire, and I’ll bet on any result. I just want to see that. We’re past the mechanical part of [his struggles with his swing]. Let’s just get into the fight. I’ve seen it. And I believe that’s what’s to come in the next month and beyond.”

This is not the position the Dodgers expected to be in when they re-signed Hernández to a three-year, $66 million contract this offseason — a move Roberts described as a “no-brainer” at the time after pushing for the front office to bring the free-agent back to Los Angeles.

He trusted Hernández’s bat, which mashed 33 home runs and 99 RBIs in his debut Dodgers season in 2024. He appreciated Hernández’s heartbeat, and how he delivered one of the season’s biggest swings in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series.

In bringing Hernández back, the Dodgers hoped that his mere presence would elevate the rest of the roster for this year’s championship defense.

“He knows his value for our ballclub,” Roberts said. “He knows my expectations of him individually.”

Only, to this point, Hernández has struggled to replicate that same intangible magic.

After a blistering start to the season (.315 average, nine home runs, and an MLB-most 34 RBIs through his first 33 games), the outfielder suffered a groin/adductor strain while stretching for a line drive in Miami, landing him on the injured list for two weeks. When he returned, he looked far from 100%, struggling to rediscover his swing or cover much ground in right. Before long, a slump took hold. And as it stretched on through the summer — compounded by foot contusion on a foul ball he suffered in July — frustration began to mount.

“It’s tough when you feel good and then something happens and you have to miss … whatever the amount of games might be,” Hernández said. “It was one of those for me this year. I got injured, then I came back. I fouled it off my foot and then missed games [again].”

He later added: “For me, being hurt is more frustrating than having a bad year. I’d rather be on the field having a bad year, than not being on the field and just fighting back and forth.”

Staying on the field, of course, hasn’t alleviated Hernández’s problems. After the All-Star break, he said his body finally started feeling better. On Tuesday, he proclaimed his groin and foot to be back to full health.

And yet, over his previous eight games, he had batted only three-for-27 leading up to Sunday’s removal from the lineup. Worse than that, he had fallen back into a habit of chasing too much, leading to non-competitive at-bats at a time Roberts had been trying to emphasize the opposite.

“[I want to see] Teo getting back to having that edge,” Roberts reiterated.

In Hernández’s return to the lineup Tuesday, some positive signs finally presented themselves. He fought off a pair of two-strike pitches before lining a second-inning single. He did the same thing in the third inning to drive in a run. Defensively, there was another awkward moment, when Hernández failed to make a sliding catch on a shallow fly ball down the right-field line in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ four-run first inning. But even on that play, Roberts argued postgame, Hernández got a good jump and covered a lot of ground — breaking into the kind of hard-charging sprint that hadn’t always been there earlier this season.

“If I see a good jump getting off the ball, good effort, I’ve got no problem with it,” Roberts said.

Really, that’s all Roberts is hoping for from Hernández moving forward now.

To have the kind of consistent intensity level that has wavered at times this season. To rekindle that balance of having fun and playing with an edge down the stretch run of the season.

“We’re going to see that,” Roberts said. “I have no doubt.”

“You just leave everything on the field,” Hernández echoed. “I’m going to keep working, keep doing my routine, keep doing the stuff that I normally do to get back on track. And hopefully I get the results that I want to help the team.”

The Dodgers continued their season-long celebration of last year’s World Series triumph by handing out championship rings Monday. The 49,702 people who bought tickets got replicas while Gavin Lux, who played for the Dodgers last season and is now with the Cincinnati Reds, got a real one.

If the team hopes to win more jewelry again this fall, the next five weeks will be key. Because after Monday’s 7-0 win over the Reds, the Dodgers lead San Diego by a game in the National League West with just 30 more left in the regular season for both teams.

However, if the Dodgers (75-57) continue to play as they did Monday, when Andy Pages homered twice, driving in four runs, and Emmet Sheehan threw a career-high seven scoreless innings, they’ll be tough to catch.

“The defense was just engaged, every single guy out there. The at-bats, one through nine, were great,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s probably one of the better games, complete games, that we’ve played in months. I’m really, really excited about the way we played.”

Excited, too, because what started as a marathon six months ago is now a different kind of race.

“We’re in a sprint now,” said Michael Conforto, who had two hits and made two outstanding plays in left field. “We’re in a race for the division.”

And they’re a step ahead in that race with the Padres, who, like the Dodgers, have 10 series remaining, five at home and five on the road. But San Diego has the easier schedule, based on the combined winning percentage of its opponents (.474) entering the week. The Dodgers have the fourth-easiest schedule.

For Roberts, his team’s narrow margin for error is something to be embraced since it has the potential to steel his team for the postseason, as opposed to simply coasting into the playoffs.

“Competition should bring out the best in you,” he said. “So where the margins are smaller and everything matters more versus you have a big lead and you’re not playing with urgency because you don’t need to, and then have to kind of flip the switch, that’s tough.”

The Dodgers also are rapidly adding reinforcements for their playoff push. Over the weekend, relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates returned from the injured list and utility player Kiké Hernández was activated Monday. Third baseman Max Muncy and infielder/outfielder Hyeseong Kim could be back by the next road trip, if not before. Utilityman Tommy Edman and pitcher Roki Sasaki likely aren’t far behind.

Then there’s Sheehan (5-2), who was brilliant Monday, pitching a career-best seven innings and matching a career high with 10 strikeouts to win his third straight decision. Sheehan gave up just two hits and walked one.

“I definitely have to build on it. Try to just keep the same progress we’ve been doing, keep that going for the next one,” Sheehan said. “It’s pretty fun. It’s a lot more fun than watching the ball go over the fence, for sure.”

For Roberts, it’s as if his team acquired a half-dozen new players.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, left, celebrates with right fielder Teoscar Hernández after hitting a home run in the seventh inning against the Reds on Monday.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

“Those are kind of deadline trades in themselves,” he said. “I do appreciate the guys that have been here, kind of grinding through. But it’s nice looking out on the horizon, seeing the guys that we got coming.”

Pages put the Dodgers in front to stay in the third Monday, driving a 102-mph fastball from Hunter Greene into the bullpen in left field. He hit another in the fifth inning for his 23rd homer of the season, second-most on the team behind Shohei Ohtani’s 45.

In the sixth, a double by Freddie Freeman and walks to Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández loaded the bases for Pages, whose two-out grounder to short got under Elly De La Cruz for a two-run error. A Mookie Betts’ homer, his second hit of the game, with one out in the seventh and a Pages’ sacrifice fly in the eighth closed out the scoring.

Relievers Jack Dreyer and Anthony Banda followed Sheehan, pitching an inning each to complete the shutout, the team’s fourth in the last 23 games.

The Dodgers had only three shutouts in the first 109 games.

Now come the reinforcements, although Kiké Hernández said he almost didn’t make it. After going on the injured list July 6 with left elbow inflammation, he tried three injections and non-invasive rehab procedures, but nothing seemed to work.

“I got to a point where I didn’t know if it was going to happen. We were pretty close to it not happening,” he said of his return. “There are some procedures that I went through that didn’t do anything. I went through four shots in a month, and [the] first three didn’t do anything, and luckily the fourth one was the answer.

“After the last shot, I was pain free.”

Hernández said he expected to start in left field Tuesday. He joins the Dodgers just in time for their sprint to the finish.

“It’s playoff-atmosphere games from here on out,” he said. “Hopefully it brings out the best in people and also teaches the younger guys that when the time comes and we’re in October, the moment doesn’t get too big for them.”

DENVER — Mookie Betts was the first Dodgers position player out on the field Tuesday, walking to a spot near the third-base foul line and kneeling on a mat before a coach, who began hitting soft ground balls to his right and left.

It’s a drill Betts does regularly to improve his defense. Betts’ defense, however, really isn’t a problem for the Dodgers.

A six-time Gold Glove winner in right field, Betts moved to shortstop full-time this season, turning his old position over to Teoscar Hernández. And his defense has been a problem. But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he isn’t planning any changes to his lineup for the time being.

“Are we playing our best defensive lineup? No,” Roberts said. “But I would say there’s very few teams in the big leagues playing their best defensive lineup every night. Even in a postseason race, you’ve still got to score.”

The Dodgers are definitely in a postseason race and Hernández absolutely helps them score, ranking second on the team in home runs (20) and RBIs (75) after going two for five with a run and an RBI in Tuesday’s 11-4 rout of the Colorado Rockies. He also made two nice running catches.

But then the Dodgers didn’t need much defense Tuesday, pounding out 18 hits with every player in the lineup reaching base as least once. Newcomer Alex Call led the way with a career-high four hits, including a home run and a double, scoring three runs and driving in two others while falling a triple shy of the cycle.

“I wasn’t thinking about it. I was really just trying to get on base another time,” Call, who struck out in his final at-bat in the eighth, said of the cycle. “But everybody else in the dugout was like, ‘if you hit this ball, you better keep running.’ It would have been fun to find a gap and see what would happen.”

The homer, a 453-foot blast in the second, was the longest by a Dodger this season. Yet Call still managed to get the ball back as a souvenir.

“I actually had some some friends in the stands that flew out from Wisconsin, and they tracked down the ball for me,” he said.

The homer helped Call snap out of terrible slump. He entered the game hitting .174 since coming over from Washington at the trade deadline, which wasn’t the kind of introduction he had hoped to have with this new team.

“I wanted to make a good impression. But I think you make a good impression by just showing how you work and showing how you play the game and just trusting in yourself to do what you do,” he said. “I would tell myself, ‘I’m just calibrating.’

“There’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of new things going on. New coaches, new teammates, new situation, new city. You can go on. So it’s a lot.”

Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Betts and Miguel Rojas joined Hernández and Call with multiple hits for the Dodgers, who scored eight of their 11 runs with two out.

“Really, really pleased with tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You saw a different ball club tonight.”

And a different Call as well.

“It’s certainly a big adjustment, especially when you walk into a clubhouse like ours,” Roberts said. “Coming from the Nationals, a bunch of young players, and you see our ball club in contention and trying to kind of figure out where you where you stand, right? He’s likable the way he plays, practices, and it was good to see him have some success.”

The Dodgers led 7-0 before the Rockies had their second baserunner, with one of those runs coming on Shohei Ohtani’s 44^th home run of the season. That made it easy for starter Emmet Sheehan (4-2), who matched a career high by going six innings, striking out a season-best seven batters to earn the win.

“We just got on the board early,” Freeman said. “When you score runs, you want to keep it going as an offense.

“[But] I don’t think anybody’s going to think about how good we did today tomorrow. Every day is a new day. We’ll go out there and give it all again.”

Etc….

Reliever Kirby Yates walked one and struck out one in a one-inning rehab appearance for Oklahoma City on Tuesday. He threw 21 pitches, 13 for strikes. Yates went on the injured list Aug. 1 with lower back pain.

The San Diego Padres’ performance on Saturday could probably be put in a tutorial video.

Suggested title: How NOT to play a baseball game.

On a night the surging Padres were trying to bounce back from the Dodgers’ opening win in this weekend’s pivotal three-game series, one that tied the two Southern California rivals atop the National League West standings, the club instead put on an exhibition of poor, sloppy and outright comical execution.

While the once-slumping Dodgers have raised their level of play the last two nights, the Padres have made mistakes even Little League coaches would be reprimanding.

Except in their case, even the coaching appeared to be part of the problem.

In the Dodgers’ 6-0 win — a victory that restored their solo lead in the division, and clinched their head-to-head season series against the Padres in case of a tiebreaker at the end of the year — San Diego did all it could to give the game away from the start.

In the top of the first, three of the Padres’ first four batters recorded a hit against Blake Snell, the ex-Padre left-hander making his first start against the team since leaving in free agency at the end of 2023. But twice, Dodgers catcher Will Smith caught a runner trying to steal second, gunning down Fernando Tatis Jr. after his leadoff single before getting Manny Machado on the back end of an attempted double-steal to retire the side.

“We had a plan,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “And they made some plays.”

Lo and behold, the plan backfired again in the second, with Smith throwing out yet another runner, Xander Bogaerts, with yet another strike to second.

“Through two innings,” Snell joked, “he had three outs and I had three outs.”

Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell delivers against the Padres at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It was the Dodgers’ first game with three caught stealings since 2021, and it made Smith the first Dodgers catcher with three individually since Russell Martin in 2010.

“Obviously we feel that Will is the best catcher in baseball in totality,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Tonight, he showed it with his arm.”

And, just as importantly, Roberts quickly added: “Essentially, they played 24 outs.”

Somehow, the Padres’ pitching and defense found a way to be even worse.

Starting pitcher Dylan Cease began his outing with three-straight walks in the bottom of the first, spraying the ball around the plate while visibly frustrated.

After a one-out sacrifice fly from Teoscar Hernández, Cease reloaded the bases with another free pass to Andy Pages, and followed that with a hanging curveball to Michael Conforto in a 3-and-0 count that had run full. Conforto was ready for it, ripping a two-run single into right. Seven batters in, the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead.

“Definitely you don’t want to help him out in that situation,” Conforto said. “But he fell behind 3-0, and came back into the zone, and showed that he was going to throw strikes. He wasn’t going to put me on. So, being ready to hit 3-1, and then being ready to hit 3-2, was obviously the plan.”

Dodgers second base Miguel Rojas tags out San Diego Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts on a stolen-base attempt in the second inning. Catcher Will Smith threw out three Padres baserunners Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Walks continued to abound in the second, with Cease putting Shohei Ohtani and Smith aboard to create more traffic. This time, the right-hander had appeared to work his way out of it, after Freddie Freeman hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in right-center. But on this night, even routine outs were no sure thing.

Sensing Tatis converging from right field, center fielder Jackson Merrill briefly hesitated while pursuing the drive, before awkwardly reaching for it with an underhanded attempt. Predictably, he couldn’t hold on, the ball hitting the heel of his mitt before falling to the ground for a two-run error.

The Dodgers, who went on to get six shutout innings from Snell and a second home run in as many nights from Hernández, would never be threatened again.

“It’s certainly good to be on the other side of things,” Roberts said, after his club had for so long had been the one shooting itself in the foot. “We’ve caught some breaks … but for us to take advantage of them is huge.”

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani scores on a sacrifice fly in the first inning Saturday against the Padres.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

To recap the first two innings one more time:

The Dodgers (70-53) had just one hit, and saw their starting pitcher retire only one of the first five batters he faced — but drew six walks, were gifted a dropped ball and somehow led 5-0.

The Padres (69-54) had four hits — but apparently forgot how to throw up a stop sign, committed the costliest of imaginable errors defensively, and watched their starting pitcher throw 31 balls to only 27 strikes.

That, kids, is decidedly not how it’s done.

“It just got out of hand a little early,” Bogaerts said. “Obviously a little, couple of mistakes.”

Not that the Dodgers seemed all too much to mind.

Over the last couple months, as Roberts eluded to, they had been the team on the wrong end of sloppy fundamentals. What was once a nine-game division lead evaporated in the space of six weeks, thanks to un-clutch offense, unreliable relief pitching and one maddening close loss after another.

But in Friday’s series opener, they had finally played clean baseball, and even more importantly, grinded out a one-run win.

“If you win the close games, that’s how you build,” Freeman theorized last week. “Then you’ll score nine, 10 runs. Then you’ll start putting some things together. But just need to find a way to win those close ones.”

So far in this series, that prediction has come true.

Not that he, or anyone else with the Dodgers, could have expected the Padres to offer so much self-destructive help.

“I’m just happy that we’re playing better baseball,” Roberts said. “We’re playing clean baseball. We’re minimizing the walks, taking walks. Not making outs on the bases, and converting outs when we need to. When you have the talent that we do, you just gotta kind of play good baseball. … So this is a good time to go for the jugular [with a potential series sweep Sunday].”

In the standings, all is right again in the Dodgers’ world. Clayton Kershaw was, well, Clayton Kershaw. The Dodgers won.

In the box score, all was not well. As you already have guessed, the bullpen: Five relievers were needed to cover the final three innings, in which the San Diego Padres put potential tying and/or go-ahead runs on base in each of those innings.

And, on Day 1 of Life Without Muncy 2.0, the Dodgers managed four hits.

With 40 games to play, the Dodgers and Padres are tied atop the National League West. If Max Muncy can play in even a handful of those games, the Dodgers will be grateful.

The Dodgers put their third baseman on the injured list Friday afternoon because of a strained oblique muscle. When Muncy went on the injured list last month because of a knee injury, the Dodgers led the majors in runs. He missed 25 games, in which the Dodgers ranked last in runs.

Of the Dodgers’ four hits on Friday evening, three were delivered by the bottom three batters in the lineup. That means Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages went a combined 1 for 17.

“Max just has that balance in the lineup, as far as another left-handed (hitter),” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “but also handles left-handed pitching and has the ability to get on base.

“He’s a threat. Now, without him, other guys have got to step up.”

The Dodgers’ left-handed bats, as of Friday: Ohtani, Freeman, outfielder Michael Conforto (.189) and backup catcher Dalton Rushing (.202).

It should go without saying that Ohtani and Freeman remain imposing. It should also go without saying that opponents might well line up right-handers against the Dodgers, including the Padres throwing Dylan Cease against them Saturday and Yu Darvish on Sunday.

Teoscar Hernández hits a solo home run in the seventh inning during the Dodgers’ 3-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“We’re going to see a slew of right-handed pitching,” Roberts said. “There are going to be right-handers coming out of the pen.

“Our right-handers have got to be better.”

On that score, the most encouraging development for the Dodgers on Friday was Hernández hitting what turned out to be the decisive home run.

“Teo came to life with a big homer,” Roberts said.

Hernández hit 33 home runs last season, when his OPS was at least .762 in each month of the season. His OPS has been below .762 in each month this season except the first one.

In the Dodgers’ first 29 games, he hit nine home runs. In the 93 games since then, he has hit 10.

“Some days, it’s good. Some days, it’s bad,” Hernández said. “Some days, it’s in between. Hitting is not easy. But I’m going to continue to keep working and try to be consistent for the month and a half, and hopefully in the playoffs.”

The pennant stretch comes first, and Roberts has faith in Hernández.

Said Roberts: “It’s an easy bet that, when the stakes get higher, Teo is going to really show up for us.”

Muncy does that, in getting on base and in circling the bases. In October, when the pitching can rise to the occasion, so can Muncy.

His OPS is higher in the playoffs than in the regular season. He walks way more often. He can elevate the Dodgers’ lineup in October, if the rest of the lineup can step up and help get him there.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dave Roberts has a high bar for his $400 million baseball team.

Sure, the Dodgers entered Friday winners of 13 of their 17, tied for the best overall record in baseball and leading the National League West by six games.

Sure, they already have one guaranteed All-Star in Shohei Ohtani, and seven other finalists who advanced to the second stage of fan voting that will begin next week.

But, in the eyes of their manager, “I still just don’t believe we’re playing our best baseball,” Roberts said Friday afternoon. “I don’t think we’ve played complete baseball for a stretch.”

On Friday night, the Dodgers still weren’t at their best. Dustin May managed just four innings in a four-run start. The lineup produced only four total hits. Teoscar Hernández made a defensive blunder in the outfield. And the bullpen danced in and out of trouble down the stretch.

But right now, amid this soft portion of the team’s schedule, flawed performances have often still been enough.

And in Friday’s 5-4 win over the badly slumping Kansas City Royals, that once again proved to be the case.

Shohei Ohtani hits a home run in the first inning against the Royals on Friday.

(Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

For all the Dodgers’ shortcomings, they did just enough to compensate in a series opener at Kauffman Stadium.

May gave up a run in the first after letting three straight batters reach with two outs, but not before Ohtani opened the scoring with a leadoff blast.

Hernández let a hard-hit but catchable line drive get over his head in right field in the third, fueling a three-run Royals rally that was punctuated by Bobby Witt Jr.’s two-run blast. But that was sandwiched by a two-run homer from Max Muncy in the second, and a game-tying triple from Ohtani in the fifth.

Mookie Betts eventually put the Dodgers in front one at bat after Ohtani’s triple, singling him home to give the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.

And though May’s high pitch count forced him to exit early against the Royals (38-44), a worn-down Dodgers bullpen patched together five scoreless frames, escaping their biggest jam in the ninth when closer Tanner Scott induced a game-ending double play with the bases loaded.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was still enough to move the Dodgers into sole possession of the best record in the majors at 52-31.

That extended stretch of dominance is still eluding them. But for now, they’re finding ways to win anyway.

Dodger Stadium is the proud owner of the most home runs in baseball this season. The long-ball trend might not be an anomaly.

On Saturday night, the Dodgers and Washington Nationals combined for eight home runs, the most in a Dodgers game this season, but only three came off L.A. bats.

Dodgers right-hander Dustin May gave up three of those home runs, all solo shots, in a 7-3 loss to the Nationals. Andy Pages, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández hit home runs in the fifth, sixth and ninth innings, respectively.

In the fourth inning, Nationals slugger James Wood used all of his 6-foot-7, 234-pound frame to launch a sinker from May to break a scoreless game. Pages only took one step from his position in center field as he tracked the ball off Wood’s bat — he knew where it was headed.

The 451-foot solo blast gave the Nationals a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Three-hole hitter Luis Garcia Jr. followed Wood with a solo home run.

For being middle of the pack offense — ranked 18th overall in runs scored — the Nationals flexed their muscle with their young stars. CJ Abrams socked a two-run home run in the seventh off Dodgers reliever Jack Dreyer, his second in as many games.

Washington’s Nathaniel Lowe celebrates in the dugout after hitting his second home run of the game in the eighth inning Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Wood and Abrams were acquired by the Nationals in the Juan Soto trade with San Diego in 2022.

May gave up a home run in the sixth to Nathaniel Lowe — who also hit a homer in the eighth inning for his first multi-home run game. May gave up five hits, struck out five and walked two, tossing six innings for the third time in his last five starts.

Outside of Pages, Smith and Hernández’s home runs, the Dodgers (47-31) threatened to score when Mookie Betts and Tommy Edman reached via singles in the fifth. Nationals starting pitcher Jake Irvin, however, struck out Freddie Freeman to end the threat. Irvin struck out seven and walked none in 5 ⅓ innings.

Shohei Ohtani, who will start on the mound Sunday against the Nationals (32-45) in his second pitching appearance of 2025, went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

Eight home runs at Dodger Stadium is unusual, but low humidity in L.A. could be a factor in helping hard hits soar. Climate change researchers have even pondered the effect that warmer climates could have on home runs, with a 2023 study in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society stating that more than 500 home runs since 2010 could be credited to global warming.

Across the last six seasons, Chavez Ravine has ranked top five in home runs on five occasions. In the 43 games the Dodgers have played at home in 2025, there have been an average of 3.39 home runs per game (146 home runs overall and 23 more than second-place George M. Steinbrenner Field).

Glasnow update

Tyler Glasnow (right shoulder) is scheduled to pitch two innings for triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. Relief pitcher Luis Garcia (right adductor) is set to appear for single-A Rancho Cucamonga on Sunday as well.

Both rehabilitation outings are their first since joining the injured list.