It was image day at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, a type of quaint baseball traditions that has endured long gone its usefulness.
So the crew arrange three rows of aluminum risers in shallow heart area and the gamers, sporting impossibly white uniforms, filed out of the clubhouse simply earlier than 3 p.m., passing up batting observe to pose for the cameras. For a sport that thrives on routine, the afternoon had a singular last-day-of-school vibe.
“It’s a weird day,” supervisor Dave Roberts agreed.
However image day additionally serves to convey the tip of the season into tighter focus because it normally occurs within the remaining three weeks. And the gamers who climb these risers are those who will resolve the crew’s postseason destiny.
That was very true for the Dodgers, who rode one other splendid pitching efficiency — this one from Emmet Sheehan — to a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Sheehan, bidding for a spot within the playoff rotation, was backed by 4 homers, together with a pair of solo photographs from Teoscar Hernández, who had his first three-hit night time in additional than a month.
The win, the crew’s third in a row, coupled with San Diego’s loss to Cincinnati, expanded the Dodgers’ lead within the Nationwide League West to 2 video games over the second-place Padres with simply 17 left to play.
“It’s getting down to the wire,” Roberts stated.
The Dodgers’ beginning pitching is already in postseason type, posting a 1.41 ERA over the previous 5 video games. On Tuesday it was Sheehan’s activate the mound and he set down the primary 15 Rockies so as, turning into the third Dodger starter in 4 video games to take a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
He wound up scattering three hits and a stroll over seven innings, placing out 9 to earn his fourth victory in 5 selections. The win was additionally Sheehan’s fourth victory in as many appearances towards Colorado.
Roberts stated his crew’s beginning pitchers are all competing to one-up one another, giving the importance of the video games now.
“They’re feeding off one another,” he stated. “The pitchers are of the mind that these are very, very important games. It’s kind of the playoff mentality. The catchers are calling games in that vein.
“The defense has been really focused getting off the baseball. There’s a heightened level of focus across the board.”
That even unfold to the offense, stated Mookie Betts, whose two-run residence run within the third prolonged his streak of reaching base safely to fifteen straight video games.
Mookie Betts could be very comfortable after his two-run homer within the third inning.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
“It’s really neat being on this side,” Betts, who had a number of RBIs for a fourth straight sport, stated of watching the Dodger pitchers work. “If you kind of take a step back and look at it, there’s a lot of teams that would ask for something like this. Those guys give us opportunity to win every day.
“It’s really important for us as on the offensive side not to take that for granted.”
Though the Dodgers entered Tuesday second to final within the majors with a mean of three.14 runs a sport in September, towards Colorado starter Germán Márquez (3-13), whose ERA (6.31) seems extra like a mortgage fee, they ran out to a 5-0 lead after 5 innings. Because of this the main focus turned to Sheehan, who wanted simply 59 pitches to cruise by 5 good innings, placing out 5.
“I probably knew,” Sheehan, pitching on the sixtieth anniversary of Sandy Koufax’s good sport, stated when requested if he was conscious he was greater than midway to matching that. “But I was definitely not thinking about it.”
The best-hander stated he tried to cross up the Rockies by shifting away from his fastball and going with a slider to the glove facet as an alternative.
“I felt like I was executing the slider pretty well,” he stated. “The more I throw it, the easier it gets to get it to that spot. It’s an important pitch for me.”
Kyle Karros ended the suspense when he lined Sheehan’s first pitch of the sixth inning over a leaping Max Muncy at third for a single. Two extra singles introduced Karros round to attain, ending the shutout as properly.
Nonetheless Sheehan (6-3) was greater than ok to win for the fourth time in 5 selections, decreasing his ERA to three.32 and forcing his method into the dialog over a task on the postseason roster.
“He’s unflappable,” Roberts stated. “He knows he’s talented and he knows how to execute pitches. He’s got good stuff. No moment is too big for him. So I can’t speak to what role, but I know that he’s a viable option for us now and going forward.”
Tuesday’s win additionally left Sheehan unbeaten on image day, one thing he almost skipped because the scheduled beginning pitcher.
“I wasn’t going go out there,” he stated. “But I was like, I missed the last two. I gotta be out there.”
In any case, it’s a practice.
