Will Smith, Alex Call help Dodgers overcome | College News
You better run. Those three phrases had been the only thought racing through pinch-hitter Alex Call’s head when he laced a pitch from San Francisco Giants reliever Matt Gage into proper discipline.
The two-run single, which gave the Dodgers the lead, sparked a three-run rally in the sixth inning that concluded when Miguel Rojas drove in Call on a single to heart discipline.
“It felt like I hit it,” said Call, who initially hesitated to run after making contact. “But I guess I just didn’t quite see it off the bat, and I’m like looking for it, keep looking up, and then all of a sudden I hear the crowd get really loud.”
Call’s single helped the Dodgers beat the Giants 5-2 on Thursday evening, reclaiming first in the National League West after San Diego misplaced to Milwaukee. The Dodgers also escaped a third straight collection loss at home forward of their weekend street collection against the Angels.
Call wasn’t the only Dodger who thrived under strain. Designated hitter Will Smith, whom Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts described earlier in the day as “unflappable,” hit from the leadoff spot for the first time in his profession and homered to right-center discipline in the first inning to set the tone for the series-splitting win.
“That was nice, huh?” Roberts said. “Like I said before the game, just to be able to plug him in, you feel confident that no matter what, he’s going to give you his best. And I didn’t expect a homer, but it was a good way to start.”
The resolution to put Smith in the leadoff spot allowed Roberts to maximize the 31-year-old’s plate appearances without shifting other gamers after Shohei Ohtani was held out of the lineup.
The Dodgers (26-18) try to lighten Ohtani’s workload after his latest struggles at the plate. It’s the first time a healthy Ohtani has been out of back-to-back batting orders, besides for the paternity listing, since the common designated hitter rule was applied in 2022.
Will Smith will get a face full of sunflower seeds from teammate Andy Pages after hitting a leadoff home run in the first inning for the Dodgers on Thursday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Though the Dodgers outlasted the Giants (18-26) without Ohtani’s help, the workforce’s compounded errors virtually value it a win.
In the second inning, the underside of the lineup strung together two hits to rating Max Muncy, who reached on a stroll. However, after Miguel Rojas softly hit a ground ball to Giants starter Landen Roupp, Teoscar Hernández discovered himself stranded in no-man’s land after working toward home from third — there was no pressure play at the plate.
Rojas, who stood on the basepath, slammed his helmet down in frustration after Smith struck out to end the inning.
Rojas wasn’t the only one upset. Dalton Rushing was shown on the sport broadcast breaking his bat in the dugout and slamming his leg guard on the back bench after placing out in the fourth inning. Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan shared some phrases of encouragement with the catcher and patted him on the back.
“He was frustrated obviously with that at-bat,” Sheehan said. “We just wanted to let him know that he’s good and we still got work to do.”
Despite placing out thrice in three at-bats, Rushing continued to work properly with Sheehan.
Sheehan gave up just two earned runs and two hits with six strikeouts and two walks over six innings. He produced a 50% whiff fee with his slider, and his four-seam dotted the zone 73% of the time.
“Every time he’s been going out there, he’s getting better,” Roberts said. “And today was his best outing in totality. The fastball was good, the life to it, the command of it. I thought Dalton did a great job with him, in the sense of when to use a curveball, when to use a change-up, when to use a fastball, and we needed it.”
With a 4 pitch arsenal, Sheehan put together three hitless innings before San Francisco’s Rafael Devers hit a one-out single to left discipline.
From there, issues obtained worse. In the fifth, Jung Hoo Lee hit an inside-the-park home run when Hernández misinterpret the ball off the left-field wall in foul territory, permitting the ball to roll past him. Rojas’ relay throw was too high for Rushing to catch, and Lee slid into home to grow to be the first Giants participant to hit an inside-the-park homer at Dodger Stadium.
But the Dodgers responded in the sixth. After Max Muncy reached base on a pressure out at second and was moved over to third on a single from Hernández, Alex Call delivered a pinch-hit, two-run single to proper discipline. Rojas then blooped a ball over the infield to drive in Call.
“This game at the end of the day is about results,” Call said. “Sometimes you just have to let it play out and just play baseball. Sometimes you just have to get through the tough stuff. We’re doing a great job in here and no one’s losing faith in anybody.”
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