Scuffling for weeks, the Dodgers’ slumping offense received a gift from Lance McCullers Jr. during a fortuitous trip to Houston. Then another. And another.
The Astros starter nearly escaped Wednesday’s second inning unscathed, but he spiked a two-strike changeup to Hyeseong Kim that skipped past catcher César Salazar to bring in the tying run. His control issues cascaded from there. An inning later, McCullers threw a nearly identical pitch to Freddie Freeman that darted into the dirt to bring in the go-ahead run. Later in the same at-bat, McCullers, who was dealing with a fingernail issue during the outing, brought in a third run on a pitch that went to the backstop.
The three wild pitches alone led to more runs (three) than the Dodgers averaged over their previous seven games (2.9) and set the stage for the elusive knockout blow.
With McCullers laboring in the third, Andy Pages sent the eighth pitch of his at-bat 393 feet into the Crawford Boxes in left field for a three-run home run, his first in more than three weeks. As he left the box, he cathartically thumped the knob of his bat into the dirt, releasing some of the built-up tension.
Pages would have more reason to celebrate the rest of the night as the Dodgers outfielder ended his 20-game homerless drought with three home runs on Wednesday, the last of which came off Salazar after the catcher transitioned to mop-up pitching duty at the end of a 12-2 Dodgers win.
With that, a slumbering offense in need of a jolt might have finally found its spark against an Astros pitching staff that has surrendered more runs than any team in the sport.
“I thought today there was just more intent to scare them out of the zone,” said manager Dave Roberts. “I thought the swings were with more conviction. It wasn’t as much in-between, I felt. And it’s hard to kind of explain it, but that’s just kind of what I saw from the side. A lot less indecisiveness and conviction behind the swings.”
The slugging struggles
Before roping seven extra-base hits on Wednesday, the Dodgers were mired in a weeks-long power outage. At times, Roberts thought his players were too passive. Other times, they uncharacteristically chased.
The Dodgers ranked last in the majors in slugging percentage (.323) over their last 14 games entering the series finale in Houston, an astonishing mark even over a small sample for a lineup that includes Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Will Smith, Teoscar Hernández and Freeman. All of those standouts are performing below their usual offensive standards to begin the year.
The Dodgers hit a combined five home runs during those 14 games, the second-fewest in MLB over that stretch. They also endured a six-game homerless drought — their longest since 2014 — before finally breaking out with two homers Monday in an 8-3 win. The euphoria was fleeting, however, as they followed that eruption with a 2-1 loss Tuesday in a game in which Ohtani was unable to help his own cause.
(Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
On the mound, Ohtani’s Cy Young bid continued with seven innings of two-run ball in his longest outing since 2023, but the two-way star was notably absent from the lineup for the third time in his last four pitching starts. His 0.97 ERA through six starts is by far the best mark of any qualified pitcher, though his work on the mound appears to be coming at a cost, even if he’s hesitant to admit it.
“I don’t think so, personally, that the pitching has been affecting my hitting,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “At the same time, it has been a little bit longer than my expectation in terms of the hitting side of things.”
Ohtani entered his start Tuesday hitless over five games, just the second time that has ever happened in his career. Roberts initially planned to let Ohtani assume his usual two-way duties but changed course in the midst of another hitless night Monday that dropped his batting average for the year to .240 and his OPS to .814, a dramatic decrease from the combined 1.025 OPS he posted over his first two seasons with the Dodgers.
“The offense, including myself, hasn’t done a great job scoring runs,” Ohtani said. “If I was hitting well, I’m sure the team would want me to pitch and hit as well. But I understand in a situation where, ‘Hey, just focus on pitching, turn the page on the hitting,’ I understand why the team might think like that.”
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
Starting to turn at the top?
The Dodgers’ overall offensive numbers this year aren’t bad — they’re back to being the league leaders in OPS — but it has primarily been the bottom of their lineup carrying them to this point.
The Nos. 6-9 hitters in their lineup have an .876 OPS, the best mark in MLB. The top five hitters in their lineup, meanwhile, rank 16th with a combined .742 OPS. An early-season oblique injury to Mookie Betts and an illness that has circulated lately around the clubhouse haven’t helped matters, but the struggles of the Dodgers’ top sluggers this year are still difficult to explain.
One sign of the frustration: Ohtani and Freeman both hit on the field pregame this week, a rare occurrence that only happens when they’re searching for something.
The underlying numbers suggest both should be performing better than they have to this point, though Ohtani’s bat speed and hard-hit rate are notably down from last year, which could be a sign of fatigue as he assumes full pitching duties this year.
(Photo by Tom Wilson/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Freeman, meanwhile, has the highest average exit velocity of his career, is whiffing far less than he did last year and has a slugging percentage more than 100 points lower than what is expected based on his quality of contact. But he hasn’t lined the ball over the shortstop’s head as often as he likes and has the lowest launch angle of his career, making it difficult for him to access his pull-side power.
He has started tinkering with his stance, turning his front foot in more to avoid his hips flying out, and has seen better results. Freeman has a hit in every game this month and reached base three times Wednesday, including an opposite-field double. Ohtani also reached base three times, including a double that ended an 0-for-18 skid, as did Kyle Tucker in a game that served as a step in the right direction for a number of scuffling Dodgers stars.
Tucker has been a league-average hitter to this point — certainly not what the Dodgers paid for this winter when they gave him four years and $240 million — and seems to be pressing early in his first year in Los Angeles, as evidenced by his highest strikeout rate since 2020, his highest chase rate since 2022 and the highest first-pitch swing rate of his career. But he now has a hit in five straight games, including three extra-base hits over that stretch.
“It was good to see guys like Shohei swing the bat well,” Roberts said. ” I thought Freddie swung the bat well, Kyle Tucker had a really good road trip. Just across the board, I thought it was good.”
(Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
The Dodgers scored more runs in Wednesday’s series finale (12) than they had in their last five games combined entering the series in Houston (11). Only time will tell whether the breakout against an Astros team that sports a 5.82 ERA — by far the worst mark in MLB — is a harbinger of a turnaround or simply a brief respite against a dreadfully depleted pitching staff.
This weekend, when the Dodgers host a Braves team with the best record in baseball, should help provide an answer.
Rowan Kavneris an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at@RowanKavner.