On Friday night, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was cautiously optimistic.
“I’ll take the two wins,” he said, when asked if his club was “on a roll” after winning back-to-back games for the first time in a couple weeks. “I think, offensively, we’re starting to do some good things.”
Twenty-four hours later, he and the Dodgers had even more reason for belief.
The two-time defending champions still aren’t firing on all cylinders, and they’re still just .500 over the last two months.
But after weeks of middling play, they just might be turning a corner all the same, battling back (and then, in a hairy ninth inning, hanging on) for a come-from-behind 6-5 win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday that gave them some tangible momentum to finally latch onto.
For much of the evening, the night was shaping up to be a frustrating dud.
Shohei Ohtani was out of the lineup again. Max Muncy (sick) and Dalton Rushing (a flare-up of the slightly torn ligament in his elbow that he’s been playing through) were scratched a couple hours before first pitch.
The offense scored two first-inning runs, then went quiet. Tyler Glasnow was not sharp in a six-plus-inning, four-run start, turning the early lead into a two-run deficit by the time he exited.
The Dodgers, however, pride themselves on winning the “big moments.”
And Saturday, none was bigger than when Tommy Edman stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh.
Two runners were aboard, after a walk from Alex Freeland and single from Kiké Hernández. The Nationals had turned to their historically wretched bullpen, which is on pace to set an MLB record in blown saves.
Right on cue, Edman took advantage.
Former Dodgers prospect Clayton Beeter threw him an elevated slider in a 2-and-1 count. Edman –– who had already electrified the crowd earlier in the night with a leaping catch at the wall in center field –– turned on it from the left side of the plate and launched a go-ahead three-run home run to the right-field pavilion, igniting a celebration at Chavez Ravine that was equal parts triumph and relief.
“Good hard fought win,” Edman said. “A lot of intense moments in the game. A lot of big moments from a lot of guys. Just anything we can do to win ball games, it’s especially important at this part of the year.”
After all, the Dodgers are running out of time to get themselves right.
Each of their previous potential second-half turning points –– like consecutive sweeps of the Rockies and Pirates last month, or even their series win over the Tigers last week –– have proven to be false starts.
Each time they’ve seemed to be gaining traction, their offense goes cold, or their pitching hits a snag, or they have another injury setback that dampens the mood around the team.
For much of Saturday –– including a ninth-inning scare that saw the Nationals put the tying and go-ahead runners in scoring position –– they were threatening to fall victim to all three fates.
By the end of it, however, they were officially back on the upswing as winners of three-straight games.
This time, they need it to be a real catapult over the rest of the season.
“It’s just good to see our offense come to life and get timely hits, take a lot of walks, create stress and get some big hits,” Roberts said. “Yeah, it’s time to go, and I think our guys understand that.”
