The Los Angeles Dodgers completed their first homestand of the regular season with an impressive 5-2 showing, winning both of their series against the rival Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants.
The club’s offense thrived during that span, posting historic numbers over the last week of play. The Dodgers set a franchise record for most consecutive games with a home run to start a season (seven) and lead all of baseball in that category to boot (18).
While the long ball has been a key component to the Dodgers hot start, the team has also thrived in smaller areas, particularly with runners in scoring position.
Having struggled in those situations a year ago, Kiké Hernandez attributed that improvement with runners in scoring position to an emphasis of the organization since assembling at Camelback Ranch for the start of Spring Training, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“For a few years now, we’ve known that we can hit home runs and we can outslug people, but there’s going to be certain games — especially in the playoffs — that we need to do little things, hit with runners in scoring position, move guys over, take what the pitchers give us,” Hernandez said. “That’s what we preached all spring long, and we’re taking it to heart, taking it seriously on a daily basis and trying to improve on a daily basis, and having some success so far.”
Through seven games, the Dodgers have statistically been the most efficient team with runners in scoring position, hitting .367/.494/.533 with four doubles, two home runs and 33 RBI.
More impressively has been the Dodgers’ success with runners in scoring position and two outs. In that department, the club paces all of baseball with a .406/.548/.688 slash line across 42 opportunities thus far.
