SAN DIEGO — The Dodgers claimed a series win against the San Diego Padres with a 4-2 victory Sunday, widening the gap between division rivals to 10 games.
The Dodgers (54-30), who have the best record in the majors, have won five of the first six games of a three-city trip that ends in Sacramento.
A bounce-back start from right-hander Emmet Sheehan made the Dodgers’ win Sunday possible. He held the Padres to one run, on Manny Machado’s fourth-inning solo shot, through five innings.
It was the first time Sheehan had held an opponent to a single run since May 8, when he threw 4 ⅔ innings against the Braves.
Shortstop Mookie Betts’ bat stayed hot, as his bases-loaded single off Padres starter Michael King served as the big hit in the Dodgers’ three-run rally in the fifth inning.
Over the course of the three-game series, the Dodgers outscored the Padres 20-12. Here are offensive takeaways from the series:
Tucker ‘grinding’ through
Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker had never been through a stretch like this before. He entered Sunday with a .719 OPS, the lowest such mark he’s had 77 games into a season in his major-league career.
“I feel fine coming to the field and everything, it’s just not being as productive as I normally am, or as I want to be, kind of sucks,” Tucker said in a conversation with The Times a couple of weeks ago. “But I’ve just got to come back for the next at-bat, or the next day, and whatever, and just move on.”
Has battling this uncharacteristic slump taught him anything?
“I’d rather not suck,” he said. “But just try and grab through and just whenever anything works or clicks or whatever just don’t let it go.”
Tucker has had moments throughout the season when it looked like he was heading toward an offensive turnaround.
In mid-April, he hit homered twice in three games, including a three-hit performance. In early May, he went on a six-game hitting streak. He hit .303 over a nine-game stretch in mid-June. But none has led into a more stable stretch of success.
So, when Tucker logged three hits, including a home run, on Saturday as the Dodgers routed the Padres 15-3, he was cautious in his optimism. Tucker even nitpicked the nine-pitch at-bat that ended in the pull-side homer.
“There were some pitches I swung at earlier in the at-bat that I thought should’ve gotten the job done earlier, just didn’t put a great swing on it,” he said after the game.
Manager Dave Roberts was more enthusiastic about that at-bat.
“I think he’s handled it well,” Roberts said. “He’s frustrated, certainly. But he hasn’t run from the work. Even [Friday] night after the game, he was hitting in the cage. … You hear the word ‘grind’ a lot, but he’s grinding. It’s good to see him have some success. I just liked that one at-bat tonight where it was just compete. It wasn’t about mechanics. It was about competing and getting the job done.”
On Sunday, Tucker went one for four with a single.
Edman’s consistency
There were times last year when utility player Tommy Edman could look at video of his swing and think, “Okay, that doesn’t look like how I want it to look.” But there was only so much he could do in the middle of the season, while playing through nagging ankle issues.
“Part of it is kind of just breaking habits that I built last year,” said Edman, who underwent surgery on his right ankle in the offseason. “Was just getting into some bad movements with the lower body, probably just compensating for the ankle, and hips get out of whack, and that kind of stuff. So I’m hopeful that I’ll just be able to keep this up the rest of the year and just be consistent with it.”
Since returning from the IL on June 16 to make his season debut, Edman is hitting .333 (11 for 33) with a .405 .on-base percentage. He hit his first triple and second double of the season in the Dodgers’ blowout win Saturday.
“I feel like this is kind of one of the rare times where both swings feel good, both from the right and left,” switch-hitting Edman said after that game. “It’s really tough to maintain both swings over the course of the season, so just happy that I feel that way right now.”
Betts is back
When Betts went three for four, a triple short of the cycle, in the Dodgers’ series finale in Minnesota last week, he couldn’t put his finger on a cue that had snapped his swing into shape over the past couple weeks.
“Today, I was able to just find something,” he said then. “I don’t even know really what I found. After the home run the first at bat, I wasn’t sure what I did, but I just kind of stayed there. And I think that was the beauty of it. And not really fully knowing and just kind of going to play kind of let me know my training is paying off.”
It continued playing off. That performance kicked off a three-game homer streak. And at the end of it, Betts had raised his OPS from .591 to .737.
By Saturday night, Roberts was ready to declare that Betts was back.
“I say ‘back’ because I just think there’s more intent with him in the batter’s box and a lot less indecisiveness,” Roberts said. “So for me, if he can have that kind of proactive approach, aggressive approach then everything else is going to take care of itself.”
More to Read
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: latimes.com
