teoscar hernández

CINCINNATI — A simple change opened up a dramatic offensive turnaround for Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández.

Hernández’s two-run homer Tuesday, in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win against the Reds, was his second home run in as many nights, as the team trimmed its magic number to clinch the division to two. And, significantly, this one was against a right-handed pitcher.

“It’s been very helpful,” manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “As certain guys are not seeing the ball as well, it’s nice to kind of backfill with guys like Teo swinging the bat. And when you can slug like he can, you can win baseball games, and he can carry us for a while. And the last 10 days, something like that, it’s been really good from him.”

Through the end of August, Hernández had just a .668 OPS against right-handed pitchers this season. So, when manager Dave Roberts was asked in Detroit whether the Dodgers would consider setting up a left-field platoon with the team’s September call-ups, he said yes.

Hernández homered off Tigers left-hander Framber Valdez on the last day of the series. And before the Dodgers opened a three-game set against the Cardinals at Dodger Stadium, Hernández met with the hitting coaches.

Against Valdez, Hernández was in a closed stance, to delay his front hip from opening, according to Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates. But the team’s hitting group thought a return to a familiar setup could be a long-term solution.

“It was a great meeting we had,” Bates said. “We all talked about it, and then he felt comfortable enough to do it, and then the rest is to his credit. He’s just been who he is.”

In the past, Hernández had used a “twister tap” as his stride. He started in a more open stance, tapped his toe in line with the pitcher, and then set his foot down. But lower-body injuries the last couple of years — a left groin strain last season and a left hamstring strain earlier this season — forced him away from it.

His improved health and hip flexibility opened up the avenue for him to return to that timing mechanism.

“When Teo’s hips are loose that way, and his front leg looks like an Elvis knee, it’s a good sign for us,” Bates said. “Because that means that he can open and close it without his upper body going with it.”

The advantage of the twister tap, as Hernández explained it, is how repeatable it is. A more traditional stride can be sped up or slowed down.

“Just being able to control my body and being in a good position,” Hernández said earlier this month. “I can see the pitch a little sooner and identify what kind of pitch it is and if it’s going to be a strike or a ball.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches during one of his seven shutout innings against the Reds Tuesday.

(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

With that change, he’s rewarded the Dodgers for deciding against platooning left field. Hernández entered Tuesday with a .777 OPS against right-handed pitchers — a sample size of just 28 plate appearances but still a significant jump.

“The biggest thing is his plate coverage away,” Bates said. “Because now he can spoil pitches, and he’s staying in at-bats longer.”

Hernández’s dramatic offensive turnaround, along with fellow corner outfielder Kyle Tucker’s improvement, have helped steady a Dodgers offense that’s missing Shohei Ohtani (on the IL with right biceps and left knee injuries) and includes a hobbled Freddie Freeman (right knee soreness).

Rookie Josue De Paula, mostly filling in for Ohtani at designated hitter, has already shown he can take mature at-bats and provide some pop. But he’s still finding his footing in a new league.

It lengthens the Dodgers lineup for Hernández, after a slow start to his year, to return to being a veteran power threat — just in time to, ideally, carry the momentum into the postseason.

On Monday, he launched his two-run shot off left-hander Nick Lodolo. On Tuesday, he replicated the feat off right-hander Rhett Lowder.

On the second pitch of the at-bat, Hernández recognized a hung slider, and he roped it over the left-field fence at 109.3 mph, according to Statcast. The blast put the Dodgers up 3-0 in the third inning, with Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto settling into a groove on the other side.

Yamamoto had walked the first two batters he faced, but he reigned in his control to pitch seven scoreless innings and allow just one more baserunner, on a double by Reds star shortstop Elly De La Cruz.

The Dodgers also scored on Hunter Feduccia’s second-inning single and Alex Freeland’s seventh-inning homer. And the Dodgers bullpen completed the shutout.

Freeman staying in the lineup

Freeman was all smiles after his three-hit game Tuesday — after going hitless for his last four games.

“I was supposed to be off tomorrow, but I played myself in there,” he said. “So I’m very excited.”

Roberts explained: “He was joking, saying, ‘If I get three hits, then can I be in there tomorrow?’”

Sure enough, the mechanical adjustments he made in the batting cage — focusing on getting his foot down early and making contact out in front — got him there.

“I’m just trying to find something that gives me results,” Freeman said. “We’re at the time where we’re just trying to get hot for five weeks here. So kind of like I did in the World Series a couple years ago, I did the step-out move. That’s not sustainable over six months. I’m not trying to find something that’s sustainable.”

Though Roberts has been trying to find opportunities to rest Freeman, he saw promising signs Tuesday beyond the results.

“Just my eyes, just watching him move, I feel good about him going tomorrow,” Roberts said.

De Paula, Freeland and third baseman Max Muncy will be out of the lineup Wednesday, Roberts said.

Teoscar Hernández stepped into exactly the kind of situation the Dodgers had failed to capitalize on during the past couple of games: runners in scoring position. And with one out in the ninth inning, the Dodgers were running out of chances for a comeback.

Hernández worked a full count against St. Louis closer Riley O’Brien with runners on first and second. Then he got a sinker up and over the middle of the plate, a pitch he could drive. And he did.

Hernández lined it into the left-center field gap. Tommy Edman scored easily, and Mookie Betts slid across the plate head first as the throw came in high and too late.

The Dodgers walked off the Cardinals with a 3-2 victory Thursday, narrowly avoiding a series sweep at Dodger Stadium.

“We needed it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously for seven innings, it didn’t look good at all. Then we found a way to scratch one across. But a win’s a win, however it looks.”

Before Hernández’s walk-off double, the Dodgers (83-57) had taken 26 at-bats with runners in scoring position over two games. Only one of those had resulted in a hit.

Hernández, however, unlocked something on a long fly out he hit in Detroit on Saturday.

“It’s just the way my body was reacting, was more under control,” he said. “I was able to notice everything that I was doing, even though it was an out. …That was the swing that is leading to all the good results that I’ve been having lately.”

Hernández, who entered this series with a .668 OPS against right-handed pitchers, had been struggling for so long that Roberts contemplated a left-field platoon.

Teoscar Hernández hits a walk-off double against the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth inning Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

“I told Dave, if you feel like you have to use somebody else in there, just do it,” Hernández said. “But know that I am going to keep working and I’m going to try to be ready for the times that you need me.”

On Sunday in Detroit, Hernández hit a home run off Framber Valdez. And when rosters expanded on Sept. 1, the Dodgers decided against bringing up an outfielder who could share playing time with Hernández, betting that he could end his slump.

Hernández went six for 13 in three games against the Cardinals (70-71), with Roberts remarking it was “as good as I’ve seen him versus [right-handers] since April.”

“I’ve always said that we’re better when he’s in the lineup,” Roberts said. “But performance certainly matters, and this series, albeit a small sample, was really good. As you get to the postseason and towards the end of the season, we’ve got to start figuring out who we can play, who we can count on, who’s dependable. And the at-bats he’s taken these last three games, really good.”

Hernández and Edman — hitting leadoff in place of Shohei Ohtani, who got the day off while dealing with a nagging biceps problem — were the only Dodgers with hits Thursday. Edman led the team with four, but Hernández’ second knock was the most important one.

“It was huge to finally get that big hit,” Edman said of Hernández. “We were kind of pressing a little bit in those first two games. Everybody was kind of trying to do too much in the big spots. Teo came through huge in that moment. Just can’t say enough about him, and that was just such a huge at-bat, and able to kind of steal that win today.”

DETROIT — As Tarik Skubal crossed the field from the bullpen, he had to crane his neck to catch part of the tribute video playing on the massive screen behind him.

By the time he reached the Dodgers dugout, the crowd rose to give him an ovation. Skubal controlled his expression and wiped his face with the towel draped over his neck.

Less than four weeks ago, he said goodbye to the only organization he’d known — the Detroit Tigers drafted him in 2018 out of Seattle University. Now, he was back in the ballpark he’d called home for six years.

In the Dodgers’ 2-1 win Friday, Skubal showed why he was widely considered the best player available at the trade deadline, holding the Tigers to one run and four hits over six innings. The Dodgers’ offense continued to scuffle but did just enough to bounce back from a three-game sweep in Atlanta — the 14th time this month they played a game decided by a single run.

Skubal’s reception included some boos (and “Scuuuub”s) as he took the mound. Even though the trade was out of Skubal’s control, a faction of the Tigers fan base — including this reporter’s rideshare driver from the airport — was upset Skubal never reached an agreement for a contract extension with Detroit (62-72).

The Tigers’ last publicly discussed extension offer was four years and $75 million at the end of 2024 — which drastically pales in comparison to the contract he’s expected to garner in free agency this offseason.

The mutual affection between the player and Detroit, however, took center stage Friday, even as Skubal tamed the Tigers’ offense.

He quickly reined in his emotions. After a delay for a PitchCom malfunction, Skubal gave up a leadoff double to Detroit’s Gleyber Torres on a fastball down the middle. But then the left-hander retired the next 12 batters.

Skubal struck out the side in the third inning, getting Max Clark to swing through a changeup, Javier Báez to chase a high fastball and Torres to watch an off-speed pitch clip the bottom of the zone.

That streak ended with a double up the left-field line from Eduardo Valencia, who turned on an inside slider to lead off the fifth. Then with two outs, Clark stayed back on an outside fastball and sent it the other way for a triple that drove in the game’s first run.

The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith’s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching should help.

Skubal induced Báez to fly out to center field and punched the palm of his glove on his way off the field.

The Dodgers (81-54) missed a chance to tie with one out in the sixth, when Kyle Tucker was thrown out at home trying to score on a pinch-hit single by Kiké Hernández. But they salvaged the inning when Teoscar Hernández drew a walk and Miguel Rojas smoked a single through the infield to tie the score.

In the seventh, the Dodgers loaded the bases with two outs and failed to squeeze in a run.

Evan Phillips took over on the mound in the bottom of the inning. Skubal’s pitch count stood at only 83, but he had thrown 100 pitches in each of his previous two starts.

The Dodgers finally took the lead in the eighth, manufacturing a run with singles from Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman on either side of a sacrifice bunt from Ben Rortvedt.