Teoscar Hernández returns, Dodgers beat Athletics

SACRAMENTO — Teoscar Hernández was back from a hamstring injury, and a little bit humble. He was about to play his first sport in a month for the Dodgers.

“I don’t think they really need me in the lineup,” he said, with a trace of a smile.

Hernández hit 58 home runs over his first two seasons with the Dodgers, each of which ended in a World Series championship, so of course they need him. But, in his absence, the Dodgers had more than doubled their National League West lead.

Hernández is back, but Will Smith and Kiké Hernández still are out. So are Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Edwin Díaz.

No matter: The Dodgers boosted their division lead to 11 video games Monday with a 9-4 victory over the Athletics. Shohei Ohtani, Max Muncy and Andy Pages homered to spotlight a 17-hit assault.

The Dodgers are on tempo to win the NL West by 21 video games. They boast the best document in the major leagues at 55-30, and Ohtani and the Traveling All-Stars stay baseball’s best street show.

Before the sport, a man setting up one of the merchandise stands right here pointed to all the Dodgers gear for sale. He wore a Dodgers cap. He said he wished he had more Dodgers stuff to promote, because the group can be overwhelmingly in favor of the Dodgers.

And so it was, at some point after San Diego followers complained of all the Dodgers partisans at Petco Park. In Sacramento, where the wandering home crew wears a Sacramento patch on one jersey sleeve and a Las Vegas patch on the other sleeve, there have been loud cheers for Ohtani and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts, and loud chants of “Let’s go, Dodgers!”

Every Dodger in the beginning lineup had two hits besides for Betts, who had one.

Eric Lauer, imported to fortify a beginning rotation without Glasnow and Snell, labored six innings to document the victory. He gave up three runs and 4 hits in the second inning, no runs and 5 hits over the other 5.

He is 3-0 with 2.88 earned-run average in six begins for the Dodgers, the last three of them categorized as high quality begins.

“He’s been nothing but impressive for us,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts said.

Glasnow and Snell are weeks away from returning, and perhaps more, but Roberts said they’d not lose their job because of injury.

“Eric coming over here knew that this was the deal, right?” said Roberts, who posted his 999th profession win. “Until they get back. We just don’t know when. He’s just got to stay focused on doing his job. Then when that time comes we’ll see what happens.”

In the top of the second, the Dodgers bunched 4 hits, all singles — the first by Hernández, beating out an infield single in his first at-bat since the hamstring injury — to take a 2-0 lead. In the underside of the inning, the A’s also bunched 4 hits, including a Colby Thomas home run, to take a 3-2 lead.

The relaxation of the Dodgers’ scoring: a solo homer by Muncy and a two-run homer by Pages in the fourth, a three-run homer by Ohtani in the sixth, and an RBI single by Freeman in the eighth. The A’s scored the ultimate run on a wild pitch in the ninth.

And, talking of wild, each crew had a Max Muncy enjoying third base and batting seventh.

“It’s a strange feeling standing at third base and they’re announcing that you’re hitting and it’s not you,” Muncy (the Dodgers one) said.

Miguel Rojas said the Dodgers have flourished in the wake of vital accidents because the group locations a precedence on developing gamers and giving them a honest shot at enjoying time, citing Pages, infielder Alex Freeland and pitchers Justin Wrobleski and Emmet Sheehan, as effectively as sensible trades for supplementary gamers, including infielder-outfielder Tommy Edman and outfielder Alex Call.

“It’s not living with the narrative of ‘We’re buying championships and spending money,’” Rojas said. “Yeah, we’re spending money to get good players. But we’re not really basing our success just on that.

Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a three-run home run for the Dodgers in the sixth inning against the Athletics on Monday night.

(Sara Nevis / Associated Press)

“The front office does quality work on getting the right players and putting the puzzle together. I feel that’s the reason why we can afford losing a couple guys in the middle of the year, because we have a full team that is ready to step up.”

Still, Rojas conceded none of that would matter without Ohtani, Freeman, Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And, yes, Rojas said, the Dodgers do have an irreplaceable participant.

“It’s going to be really hard if we lose Shohei,” Rojas said. “It’s going to be a little bit different than losing another player. Having Shohei at the top of the lineup every single day and doing both sides of the ball has been really helpful.”

Ohtani gave the Sacramento crowd what it needed to see: a majestic 432-foot home run, with a supercharged, 112-mph exit velocity. On Wednesday, the last day of the Dodgers’ only scheduled go to right here before the A’s transfer to Las Vegas in 2028, he’ll take the mound to give the people more of what they need to see.

“I think we got market share tonight,” Roberts said. “It was fun. A lot of people don’t get a chance to see us play. So people up here in this area, Northern California, get to see us, get to see Shohei put on a show.”

Ohtani, two-way All-Star?

Roberts said no choice has been made about whether or not Ohtani will pitch in the All-Star Game. Ohtani already has been elected as the beginning designated hitter for the National League.

If Ohtani will not be the beginning pitcher, he is not going to pitch.

In the 2021 All-Star Game, Ohtani was the beginning pitcher and designated hitter for the American League. It can be impractical for Ohtani to heat up to pitch in the center of an exhibition sport in which he’s the DH.

The Dodgers carefully handle Ohtani’s workload on the mound, which may lead to a choice that he skip pitching in the sport. The most seemingly candidates for NL beginning pitcher: Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers and Cristopher Sanchez of the host Philadelphia Phillies, with Yamamoto also worthy of consideration.