Defense isnt an issue as Dodgers rout the Rockies

DENVER — Mookie Betts was the first Dodgers place participant out on the area Tuesday, strolling to a spot close to the third-base foul line and kneeling on a mat before a coach, who started hitting gentle ground balls to his proper and left.

It’s a drill Betts does frequently to improve his protection. Betts’ protection, however, actually isn’t a downside for the Dodgers.

A six-time Gold Glove winner in proper area, Betts moved to shortstop full-time this season, turning his outdated place over to Teoscar Hernández. And his protection has been a downside. But Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts said he isn’t planning any adjustments to his lineup for the time being.

“Are we playing our best defensive lineup? No,” Roberts said. “But I would say there’s very few teams in the big leagues playing their best defensive lineup every night. Even in a postseason race, you’ve still got to score.”

The Dodgers are in a postseason race and Hernández helps them rating, rating second on the workforce in home runs (20) and RBIs (75) after going two for 5 with a run and an RBI in Tuesday’s 11-4 rout of the Colorado Rockies. He also made two good working catches.

But Hernández’s protection sometimes helps the other workforce rating too, so Roberts is holding his fingers crossed that will change.

“There’s been times that he’s played a formidable right field,” he said. “I think he’s going to get back to that. I really do.”

The Dodgers didn’t need a lot protection Tuesday, pounding out 18 hits with every starter reaching base as least once. Alex Call led the approach with a career-high 4 hits, including a home run and a double, scoring three runs and driving in two others.

Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Betts and Miguel Rojas joined Hernández and Call with a number of hits for the Dodgers, who scored eight of their 11 runs with two out.

As for Betts, getting into Tuesday his fielding proportion was tied for fourth among National League shortstops who have performed at least 25 video games at the place, but the mental pressure of enjoying the place could also be hurting his offensive numbers, that are profession lows across the board. A .290 lifetime hitter, Betts went two for six Tuesday, raising his average to .243.

So, Roberts was requested, wouldn’t the Dodgers be better offensively and defensively with Betts in proper area, Hernández in left and Rojas at short?

“That’s a fair question,” he answered. “But you know, I don’t think that we’re there quite yet.”

Especially not Tuesday, when the Dodgers took a 2-0 first-inning lead and never regarded back. Smith acquired the rally began, strolling with two out, then scoring on Freeman’s double to proper middle. Hernández adopted with a double of his own, scoring Freeman.

The Dodgers doubled the lead in the second on solo homers from Call and Shohei Ohtani. For Call, his 453-foot blast was the longest by a Dodger this season while for Ohtani the homer, his 44^th of the season, prolonged his streak of reaching base to 17 straight video games.

The lead grew to 7-0 in the third on two-out run-scoring singles by Call, Rojas and Buddy Kennedy. The RBI for Kennedy was his first since becoming a member of the Dodgers last week while the seven runs had been the most the workforce had scored in a sport in 10 days — and there have been still six innings to play.

Starter Emmet Sheehan didn’t need practically that a lot help, breezing into the fourth before Brenton Doyle acquired the Rockies on the scoreboard with a two-out, two-run homer to left-center. Kyle Karros, the son of former Dodger first baseman Eric Karros. added two more with a two-out, two-run homer — his first as a major leaguer — in the sixth.

The Dodgers answered with three runs in the top of the seventh. Sheehan (4-2) didn’t come out for the backside of the inning, matching a profession high by going six innings, placing out a season-best seven batters to earn the win.