The struggle bus leaves town as the Dodgers look more like themselves

Andy Pages drove in three runs on Saturday. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)

by Cary Osborne

Within the Dodgers’ recent struggles has been an inability to do anything on offense past the midway point of a game and bullpen hiccups.

The Dodgers didn’t score beyond the fourth inning in each of the last four games and the bullpen twice gave up late runs.

It might have been at its most glaring on Friday night when the Dodgers led the Cubs by four runs and ended up with their biggest blown-lead loss of the season.

But there was a convergence on Saturday — a clutch bullpen effort in the top of the sixth inning, followed by a big, crooked number for the offense in the bottom of the sixth.

And for the first time since Monday, the Dodgers looked like the Dodgers.

The Dodgers matched their offensive output from that day in Colorado with a 12–4 win against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. The Cubs’ 10-game winning streak is now over.

“We broke out tonight,” said manager Dave Roberts. “Good at-bats. Big swings. Taking walks. We had a lot of two-out hits tonight, and that was big. So just up and down the lineup, good stuff.”

That critical top of the sixth had the Dodger bullpen facing a bases-loaded, no-out situation.

Jack Dreyer, who had a blow-up inning in his last outing on Wednesday in San Francisco, struck out Dansby Swanson and then Pete Crow-Armstrong. He handed it over to Will Klein, who hadn’t pitched the last four days. Klein induced a weak ground out by catcher Miguel Amaya to get out of the inning. It kept the score at 8–4.

“There’s definitely an opportunity to get rattled (in that situation), but at the end of the day, it’s focusing on what you can control,” Dreyer said.

That set up the Dodgers to post four in the bottom of the sixth. Included in that was the second hit of the night for Teoscar Hernández and a two-run single from Andy Pages — two outfielders who started the season hot, but have since cooled.

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Pages last knocked in a run on April 17. Since that point, he had been 3-for-25.

Pages was 2-for-5 with three RBI on Saturday.

Hernández was hitless in his last four games and 2 for his last 28.

He was 2-for-3 with two RBI and a walk.

Both drove in runs in the Dodgers’ six-run fourth inning.

The Dodgers used four bullpen arms to get through the final four innings scoreless. During the Dodgers’ 3–5 run from April 17–24, the bullpen allowed 18 earned runs in 17 innings.

“Everyone’s going to have down days. It’s 162 games,” Klein said. “It’s about how you bounce back. It’s big for everyone — especially the guys we’re playing for — to see that we can go out there and get it for them.”

Another positive was Roki Sasaki, whose command was much improved. Roberts said Sasaki’s line — five-plus innings, seven hits, one walk and four runs allowed (including three home runs) wasn’t reflective of the game he had.

Sasaki left the game after allowing the first two batters to reach in the sixth inning.

It was the first time Sasaki reached the sixth inning this season in five starts. The one walk was a season low.

Sasaki worked with a reconfigured splitter, which was up 6 mph from his season average.

What was the adjustment?

“I can’t tell (you),” Sasaki said with a smirk.