By the time mid-August rolls around, there are no small games in the MLB season. With the Los Angeles Dodgers hoping to fend off the Diamondbacks and Padres in the NL West race, it's crucial that they beat the teams they should beat.
It's why Teoscar Hernandez's 10th-inning heroics against the Pirates on Sunday meant so much. His walk-off RBI single lifted Los Angeles to a 6-5 win to complete a three-game sweep of last-place Pittsburgh.
This is nothing new for Hernandez. He's 4-10 with a walk in extra innings this season. And his numbers with runners in scoring position are even better than his season averages. In 2024, he's hitting .275 with an .850 OPS. With runners in scoring position, those numbers go up to .282 and .906 respectively. He's the only player in baseball with two walk-off hits since the start of July.
“When (the moment) gets hot, with runners in scoring position, Teo’s heartbeat doesn’t rise,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “It just looks like he embraces hitting in those spots he shortens up his swing, makes contact and that’s why he’s driven in close to 80 runs already.”
For Hernandez's part, he sticks to the hitter's cliché of trying not to do too much.
“I just try to not overthink it, not trying to over-swing or anything like that,” he said. “Just trying to stay patient, be calm and just get a good pitch and put it in play. In situations like that with two outs, I don’t have to do a double or homer or anything like that. With a hit, we can win a ball game.”
He now has 17 hits this season with two outs and runners in scoring position, including four doubles and three home runs. He's also walked 11 times in those situations.
Teoscar Hernandez and the Dodgers are starting to click
The Dodgers were 4-7 in their 11 games before the Pittsburgh series. Three wins over a team five games under .500 isn't going to light the world on fire, but it's a great way to gather steam with one of the best players in baseball about to return to the lineup.
Mookie Betts is expected to play his first game in two months on Monday in Milwaukee, returning to his natural position in right field. He'll also bat second in the order, allowing Roberts to split up lefty hitters Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.
With Miguel Rojas back playing shortstop and Gavin Lux hitting as well as anyone in the game (.400 BA over his last 20 games), the Dodgers' lineup is suddenly back to being one of the best in the game.
“We still control our own fate,” Roberts said. “The thing for us is to continue to play good baseball. We won three this series but you peel back the curtain and situationally we weren’t good. For us to make it a game today, shouldn’t happen.”
That's what good teams do. They find a way to win when things aren't going perfectly, and sometimes it's as simple as getting that one timely hit.
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