Offensive takeaways from Dodgers series win over

SAN DIEGO — The Dodgers claimed a series win against the San Diego Padres with a 4-2 victory Sunday, widening the hole between division rivals to 10 video games.

The Dodgers (54-30), who have the best file in the majors, have received 5 of the first six video games of a three-city journey that ends in Sacramento.

A bounce-back start from right-hander Emmet Sheehan made the Dodgers’ win Sunday potential. He held the Padres to one run, on Manny Machado’s fourth-inning homer, through 5 innings.

“Maybe being a little more comfortable in my mechanics,” Sheehan said after limiting the Padres to two hits. “But also just the focus in between starts of trying to get a little more execution instead of delivery thoughts. I had seven days, so I got to throw two bullpens this week, which is nice.”

It was the first time Sheehan held an opponent to a single run since May 8, when he threw 4⅔ innings against the Atlanta Braves.

“He just beared down and made pitches when he needed to,” supervisor Dave Roberts said, “versus feeling it with the mechanics or being uncertain.”

Mookie Betts stayed scorching with his bases-loaded, two-run single off Padres starter Michael King to spearhead a three-run rally in the fifth. Betts also singled in the seventh.

Freddie Freeman had an RBI on a nine-pitch stroll in the fifth, and Shohei Ohtani drove in the Dodgers’ first run with a single in the third.

“The last six weeks, Shohei’s been out of this world,” Roberts said. “Freddie’s been very consistent all year, and then now we got Mookie this last week on track. So it has been the better part of the season that we haven’t had all three of those guys. You can see it — when those three guys are threats, it just kind of takes a lot of pressure off everybody else.”

Over the three-game series, the Dodgers outscored the Padres 20-12. Here are offensive takeaways from the series:

Tucker ‘grinding’ through

Dodgers proper fielder Kyle Tucker never had been through a stretch like this. He entered Sunday with a .719 on-base-plus-slugging share, the bottom he’s had 77 video games into a season in his profession.

“I feel fine coming to the field and everything, it’s just not being as productive as I normally am, or as I want to be, kind of sucks,” Tucker said in a dialog with The Times a couple of weeks in the past. “But I’ve just got to come back for the next at-bat, or the next day, and whatever, and just move on.”

Has battling this uncharacteristic hunch taught him something?

“I’d rather not suck,” he said. “But just try and grab through and just whenever anything works or clicks or whatever, just don’t let it go.”

Tucker has had moments this season when it appeared like he was heading toward an offensive turnaround.

In mid-April, he homered twice in three video games, including a three-hit efficiency. In early May, he went on a six-game hitting streak. He hit .303 over a nine-game stretch in mid-June. But none led to sustained success.

So, when Tucker logged three hits, including a home run, on Saturday as the Dodgers routed the Padres 15-3, he was cautious in his optimism. Tucker even nitpicked the nine-pitch at-bat that ended in the pull-side homer.

“There were some pitches I swung at earlier in the at-bat that I thought should’ve gotten the job done earlier, just didn’t put a great swing on it,” he said after the sport.

Manager Dave Roberts was more enthusiastic about that at-bat.

“He’s handled it well,” Roberts said. “He’s frustrated, certainly. But he hasn’t run from the work. Even [Friday] night after the game, he was hitting in the cage. … You hear the word ‘grind’ a lot, but he’s grinding. It’s good to see him have some success. I just liked that one at-bat tonight where it was just compete. It wasn’t about mechanics. It was about competing and getting the job done.”

On Sunday, Tucker singled in 4 at-bats.

Edman’s consistency

Tommy Edman hits against the San Diego Padres on Friday.

(Derrick Tuskan / Associated Press)

There had been instances last yr when utility participant Tommy Edman might look at video of his swing and suppose, “OK, that doesn’t look like how I want it to look.” But there was only so a lot he might do in the center of the season, while taking part in through nagging ankle points.

“Part of it is kind of just breaking habits that I built last year,” said Edman, who underwent surgical procedure on his proper ankle in the offseason. “Was just getting into some bad movements with the lower body, probably just compensating for the ankle, and hips get out of whack, and that kind of stuff. So I’m hopeful that I’ll just be able to keep this up the rest of the year and just be consistent with it.”

Since returning from the injured checklist on June 16 to make his season debut, Edman is hitting .333 (11 for 33) with a .405 .on-base share. He hit his first triple and second double of the season in the Dodgers’ blowout win Saturday.

“I feel like this is kind of one of the rare times where both swings feel good, both from the right and left,” switch-hitting Edman said after that recreation. “It’s really tough to maintain both swings over the course of the season, so just happy that I feel that way.”

Betts is back

When Betts went three for 4, a triple short of the cycle, in the Dodgers’ series finale in Minnesota last week, he couldn’t put his finger on a cue that had snapped his swing into form over the last couple of weeks.

“Today, I was able to just find something,” he said then. “I don’t even know really what I found. After the home run the first at bat, I wasn’t sure what I did, but I just kind of stayed there. And I think that was the beauty of it. And not really fully knowing and just kind of going to play kind of let me know my training is paying off.”

It continued taking part in off. That efficiency kicked off a three-game homer streak. And by the end of his two-week heater, Betts had raised his OPS from .591 to .737.

By Saturday evening, Roberts was prepared to declare that Betts was back.

“I say ‘back’ because I just think there’s more intent with him in the batter’s box and a lot less indecisiveness,” Roberts said. “So for me, if he can have that kind of proactive approach, aggressive approach, then everything else is going to take care of itself.”

Betts credited his resurgence to a shift in how he prepares for video games. Instead of taking 100 swings in the cage with a particular cue, he’s building up from a clean slate every day.

“I used to have things I would think about that would produce a swing, and now I’m actually just training my body every day,” he said. “So kind of one in the same, but they’re just two completely different ways of going about it. And still trying to get fully used to it, but it’s working, so I’m not changing it.”