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Swanson: There’s real upside for the Dodgers at the bottom of order

October 6, 2024

LOS ANGELES – Buttom’s up, Dodger fans.

You have something to celebrate! A playoff win.

Saturday’s 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the National League Division Series snapped a six-game playoff losing streak and put the Dodgers back in the postseason win column for the first time since Oct. 11, 2022.

For that, you can thank Shohei Ohtani. And Will Smith, Gavin Lux, Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas.

Together, those guys at the bottom of the Dodgers’ order ran the club’s most effective play: Put runners on base for Ohtani, L.A.’s leadoff man.

“Everybody really contributed today,” said Ohtani, the Dodgers’ $700 million 50/50 man, who went 2 for 5, scored twice and drove in three runs on a second-inning screamer into the right-field pavilion.

The runners he drove in: No. 6 hitter Smith (who’d walked) and No. 7 Lux (who’d singled).

“The entire team,” Ohtani stressed, “including the bullpen, especially.”

And sure, Shohei, the Dodgers’ relay team of relievers deserve praise for keeping the Padres’ potent offense off the board from the fourth inning on.

Everyone would be having a much different conversation – like, “Can you believe the Dodgers are paying Yoshinobu Yamamoto $325 million to give up five earned runs in three innings in his first playoff start? In this economy?!’ – if the Dodgers pitchers behind him hadn’t penned such a successful response.

And also if the bottom of the order hadn’t come through at the plate like they did, combining to score four of the Dodgers’ runs and reaching base in 6 of their 16 plate appearances.

It felt like a game that was, in recent NBA parlance, akin to “The Lonnie Walker Game,” or the Lakers’ Game 4 win against the Golden State Warriors a couple years ago, when a reserve guard exploded for 15 incredibly meaningful fourth-quarter points to help the Lakers take a 3-1 lead in their second-round Western Conference playoff series.

Great teams don’t waste those sorts of efforts, those clutch and necessary performances from unlikely heroes. Those big games that take some pressure off of the superstars who carry so much of the burden at the top of the order.

To beat San Diego on Saturday, the Dodgers didn’t need fireworks from Mookie Betts, who went 0-2 but was gifted a pair of intentional walks, including a curious free pass with the count 2-and-2.

They didn’t need Freddie Freeman to strain his sprained ankle any more than he already was in a willful 2-for-5 outing.

Because it was Smith, Lux, Edman and Rojas applying the pressure.

They worked Padres starter Dylan Cease for 22 pitches before Ohtani came up in the second inning. And Edman caught the Padres unaware with a bunt single in the fourth, when he’d scored on a wild pitch. And Lux did it in the field too, snagging Luis Arráez’s liner at second base to help the Dodgers preserve a two-run lead in the top of the ninth.

“When you see a guy like (starting pitcher Dylan) Cease, who has really big stuff, to be able to grind at-bats, that’s the hard part,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “To be able to take walks, we did that all night. Got the pitch count up, got him out of the game, got looks at some guys – that’s a credit to our guys.”

And maybe we ought to give those guys deep in the order more credit?

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In the Dodgers’ last two regular-season victories over the Padres, the batters hitting in the final four spots combined to collect eight hits, three walks and to score eight runs.

If those guys at the bottom of the order can keep feeding, can keep feasting, well … all the Dodgers’ starting pitching problems wouldn’t seem quite so stark. And all their stressing and pressing star hitters won’t have to set the tone, but just join in on the fun.

Talk about upside.

Orange County Register

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Swanson: There’s real upside for the Dodgers at the bottom of order

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