Emmet Sheehan, Teoscar Hernández help Dodgers

It was image day at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, one of those quaint baseball traditions that has endured long past its usefulness.

So the staff set up three rows of aluminum risers in shallow heart discipline and the gamers, sporting impossibly white uniforms, filed out of the clubhouse just before 3 p.m., passing up batting follow to pose for the cameras. For a sport that thrives on routine, the afternoon had a distinctive last-day-of-school vibe.

“It’s a weird day,” supervisor Dave Roberts agreed.

But image day also serves to convey the end of the season into tighter focus since it often occurs in the ultimate three weeks. And the gamers who climb those risers are those who will resolve the staff’s postseason destiny.

That was particularly true for the Dodgers, who rode another splendid pitching efficiency — this one from Emmet Sheehan — to a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Sheehan, bidding for a spot in the playoff rotation, was backed by 4 homers, including a pair of solo photographs from Teoscar Hernández, who had his first three-hit night time in more than a month.

The win, the staff’s third in a row, coupled with San Diego’s loss to Cincinnati, expanded the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to two video games over the second-place Padres with just 17 left to play.

“It’s getting down to the wire,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers’ beginning pitching is already in postseason kind, posting a 1.41 ERA over the past 5 video games. On Tuesday it was Sheehan’s flip on the mound and he set down the first 15 Rockies in order, 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 choices. The win was also Sheehan’s fourth victory in as many appearances against Colorado.

Roberts said his staff’s beginning pitchers are all competing to one-up each other, giving the importance of the video games now.

“They’re feeding off one another,” he said. “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, said Mookie Betts, whose two-run home run in the third prolonged his streak of reaching base safely to 15 straight video games.

“It’s really neat being on this side,” Betts, who had a number of RBIs for a fourth straight recreation, said 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.”

Although the Dodgers entered Tuesday second to last in the majors with an average of 3.14 runs a recreation in September, against Colorado starter Germán Márquez (3-13), whose ERA (6.31) appears to be like more like a mortgage price, they ran out to a 5-0 lead after 5 innings. As a consequence the main focus turned to Sheehan, who needed just 59 pitches to cruise through 5 good innings, placing out 5.

“I probably knew,” Sheehan, pitching on the 60^th anniversary of Sandy Koufax’s good recreation, said when requested if he was conscious he was more than midway to matching that. “But I was definitely not thinking about it.”

The right-hander said he tried to cross the Rockies up by shifting away from his fastball and going with a slider to the glove aspect instead.

“I felt like I was executing the slider pretty well,” he said. “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 more singles introduced Karros around to rating, ending the shutout as properly.

Still Sheehan (6-3) was more than good enough to win for the fourth time in 5 choices, decreasing his ERA to 3.32 and forcing his approach into the dialog over a position on the postseason roster.

“He’s unflappable,” Roberts said. “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 also left Sheehan unbeaten on image day, one thing he almost skipped as the scheduled beginning pitcher.

“I wasn’t going go out there,” he said. “But I was like, I missed the last two. I gotta be out there.”

After all, it’s a custom.