The Dodgers’ winning ways in September were briefly interrupted for two games against the Miami Marlins, but they have picked back up against the Cincinnati Reds, taking the first two games of a four-game set.
After Tarik Skubal shut down Cincinnati over seven innings on Monday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto continued the trend of marvelous results from the rotation with a seven-inning scoreless gem on Tuesday, working through a pair of lead-off walks while allowing just one hit while striking out seven. Yamamoto has amazed in his two most recent starts— both against the Reds— allowing just one run over 14 innings while racking up 17 strikeouts compared to just three walks.
Yamamoto held the Reds to just a 1-21 clip after walking his first two hitters of the game on Tuesday, and the right-hander managed to take a page out of Skubal’s playbook for his dominating efforts, notes Sonja Chen of MLB.com.
Yamamoto was able to learn from how the Reds approached Skubal the night before, and Snell was no doubt gathering similar information on Tuesday.
“That kind of encouraged me to be aggressive and attack the hitters,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.
The pitching has managed to hold their end of the bargain against Cincinnati this week, and Blake Snell looks to keep that trajectory in motion. On the offensive side of the ball, Teoscar Hernández has fortified the offense at Great American Ball Park, as the right-hander has crushed a pair of two-run home runs that put both games out of reach.
Hernández has once again found his stride that fans saw during spring training this year, and the Dodger outfielder’s recent success is the brainchild of hitting coach Aaron Bates, allowing Hernández to have a “twister tap” in his stride to the ball, per Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times.
“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.”
“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.”
Update on Shohei Ohtani
It’s an unusual feeling watching the Dodgers without Shohei Ohtani in the everyday lineup. So far, rookie Josue De Paula has filled in at DH to a small degree of success in limited time (.143/.368/.429, 19 PA) while the reigning two-time NL MVP recovers from multiple nagging issues.
Jack Harris of the California Post notes that Ohtani was able to take batting practice on Monday, and the team is optimistic that he can potentially return from the injured list before the end of the regular season.
“Today was positive,” Roberts said, “and hopefully we can just keep building towards that.”
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