Dodgers rout Cubs as slumping bats break out in 12-run outburst

For the last week, the Dodgers had been scuffling offensively.

In the fourth inning on Saturday, they finally looked like themselves again.

With a six-run rally keyed by quality at-bats, timely hits and the kind of relentless approach the team wants to pride itself on this season, the Dodgers built perhaps their best –– and most important –– inning at the plate all season, turning an early deficit into a massive lead en route to a 12-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Entering Saturday, the Dodgers had lost five of seven games thanks largely to a lack of production from the lineup.

During the skid, they’d scored more than four runs only twice. They were enduring slumps from Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández. And things had gotten so frustrating, Freeman and Ohtani shared a light-hearted, but telling, moment in the players’ parking lot walking into the ballpark Saturday morning.

“Can we please get hits today?” Freeman joked.

The answer was yes. Salvation was discovered.

Down 2-0 early, the Dodgers initially got on the board when Max Muncy belted a two-run homer off Cubs starter Colin Rea in the third.

The real explosion, however, came an inning later, when the Dodgers erased a 3-2 deficit with a six-hit, two-walk, 11-batter onslaught.

Hyeseong Kim got things started with a one-out single. Alex Freeland lofted a fly ball past Ian Happ in the left field corner that bounced off the top of the short wall for an RBI double. An Ohtani walk was followed by a go-ahead RBI single from Freeman on an opposite-field line drive. And then, with Rea knocked out of the game, Hernández broke things open with a two-run, two-out single through the infield.

Dalton Rushing and Andy Pages would later add RBI singles to make it the Dodgers’ highest-scoring inning of the season.

All the scoring compensated for another uneven day from Roki Sasaki. He gave up four runs in five-plus innings, albeit while finding better fastball command and flashing a new-and-(mostly)-improved splitter; throwing it significantly harder and with much more spin than his traditional fork ball.

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For the first time this year, he pitched into the sixth inning –– and, now, might have tangible things to build off moving forward.

The bullpen also bounced back from a nightmarish loss on Friday, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the sixth unscathed thanks to a couple strikeouts from Jack Dreyer and an inning-ending grounder from Will Klein.

After that, the Dodgers put the game away with four more runs in the next half-inning, two of them coming on a bases-loaded double from Pages.

Just like that, the team’s league-leading offense appeared to be back in form.

What it means

For now, the Dodgers have staved off what would’ve been a third-straight dropped series (if you include their disappointing four-game split with the Colorado Rockies last week).

And while they remain in second place in the National League West, a half-game back of the San Diego Padres, they reaffirmed their status as one of the best offenses in baseball.

Even after their recent skid, they continue to lead the majors in team batting average (.281), OPS (.831) and home runs (44).

Those marks were aided by a team-wide effort Saturday. Every starter in the lineup got a hit. Everyone except Freeman and Tucker reached safely at least twice. And they were 7-for-16 overall with runners in scoring position.

Who’s hot

How about the two hitters at the bottom of the Dodgers’ order.

Kim continued his impressive return to the majors, going 2-for-5 to raise his batting average to .357 this year.

Freeland, who struggled mightily in the season’s first three weeks, also continued his recent turnaround with a 2-for-4 day (both doubles). He is now hitting .375 over his last six games.

Who’s not

Muncy and Will Smith, at least physically.

Smith was out of the lineup with some back tightness, though he is expected to be ready to start Sunday.

Muncy, meanwhile, was removed after his third at-bat while feeling “a little under the weather” –– not that it seemed to impact his play much on a day he hit his team-leading ninth homer (including his first non-solo shot of the season) and also walked twice.

Up next

The series rubber match will be on Sunday afternoon back at Chavez Ravine. Justin Wrobleski (3-0, 1.88 ERA) starts for the Dodgers, while left-hander Shota Imanaga (2-1, 2.17 ERA) goes for the Cubs.