Tommy Edman taketh and he putteth away.
Lord, what a Saturday night for the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter, who robbed the Washington Nationals of at least a double off the wall, and two innings later hit a three-run homer to help lift his injury-hampered team to a 6-5 victory.
“That was crazy,” starter Tyler Glasnow, who gave up a deep shot to Daylen Lile that might have been a huge hit had Edman not made a leaping grab that had him splattered against the padded wall in left-center field.
“It was a big boost to all of us,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
An even bigger boost came in the bottom of the seventh, when Edman hit a 389-foot blast to right center, a three-run home run that cleared the bases of Alex Freeland and Kiké Hernández.
“You can put him anywhere on the diamond — plays good defensively, has good at-bats,” Roberts said of Edman, leading off in place of the injured Shohei Ohtani. “He has a knack for the big hit, and he’s playing his tail off.”
In keeping with the way this season has gone for the Dodgers (85-57), the win didn’t come without drama. The Nationals (67-77) scored a run in the ninth, and had runners on second and third before Tanner Scott closed the game with a strikeout.
The Dodgers, who endured a 13-14 record in August, have won three in a row — a bona fide winning streak — even without Ohtani, who has missed those games because of discomfort in his left knee, right biceps and neck.
Tommy Edman hits a three-run home run in the seventh inning for the Dodgers on Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Edman is playing center field in place of the injured Andy Pages and welcomes the opportunity to contribute on defense and at the plate.
“It’s definitely something that makes me valuable to the team,” he said of his versatility, “especially late in the year when guys get banged up. Losing [Pages] is a huge loss. I take pride in being able to fill that role a little. I’m not completely filling what he left behind, but I’m trying my best. That’s important to any championship team.”
For much of the game, the Dodgers’ offense was as thin and fleeting as the sunset-lit, cotton-candy clouds over Chavez Ravine. The home team scored two runs in the first, then went largely dark until Edman’s shot.
Worth noting is the Dodgers were 15-13 in August a year ago before picking up pace with a 16-10 finish to the regular season on their way to a back-to-back World Series championship.
The sun sets during the Dodgers’ win over the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Glasnow gave up four runs on six hits in six innings, striking out eight. Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips each pitched a scoreless inning, and Scott gave up a run in the ninth before striking out CJ Abrams, with the go-ahead runs on base, to earn the save.
The status of Ohtani is to be determined. He hit in the cages in the bowels of Dodger Stadium during the game and Roberts wants to see whether he’s on a healing trend Sunday, when Justin Wrobleski will start the series finale against the Nationals.
“He did take some swings,” Roberts said of Ohtani, “and I think right now, honestly, I’m going to see how he comes in tomorrow. … But it was good to see that, during the game, all game, I think he was hitting. I don’t know what intensity, but the hitting coaches said that he was swinging with some intent.
“He did not report pain during it.”
Shohei Ohtani is hurt. The Dodgers’ rotation is injured. The team is in a fairly long slump and a first round bye isn’t remotely guaranteed.
Before the game, Roberts said if Ohtani isn’t trending in the right direction Sunday, the team will need to give serious consideration to putting him on the injured list. Ohtani falls under the 15-day category for the IL, which covers pitchers and two-way players, as opposed to the 10-day list for position players. The Dodgers can backdate the move up to three days, akin to time served. So a 15-day window would be reduced to 12 days.
Although Roberts said before the game he had not spoken to Ohtani about how he feels physically, the manager said he had gotten a hint from the player’s demeanor.
“When he doesn’t feel well physically, he gets more short and he’s not the same personality,” Roberts said, noting that Ohtani has seemed looser and more easygoing the past couple of days.
Even so, Ohtani has gone the way of his teammates lately, enduring a seven-for-51 slump over his last 13 games.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, right, speaks with catcher Dalton Rushing during the first inning Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Ohtani wasn’t the only Dodgers player missing from the lineup Saturday. Third baseman Max Muncy was scratched for illness, and catcher Dalton Rushing is dealing with discomfort in his right elbow, somewhat concerning in that he only recently returned from a slight tear to his ulnar collateral ligament in the same elbow.
All-Star catcher Will Smith, who returned Sept. 1 after missing nearly three months with an inflamed disc in his neck, got a rousing ovation in the eighth when he stepped in to pinch hit for Hunter Feduccia. Smith struck out looking on a pitch that, upon review, just nicked the edge of the zone. He has been key to the success of the Dodgers, and having him back in the mix is a good sign for the team.