“I still think that we are missing a gear” - Dave Roberts shares insight on James Paxton’s outing and Dodgers offense against Nationals
Entering Tuesday's game against the Washington Nationals, the Los Angeles Dodgers were 3-7 in their last 10 games. However, they seemed to have picked up some pace with back-to-back wins against the New York Mets and now the Nats.
Despite some late-inning traffic by the Nats, the Dodgers avoided a close game, winning 4-1 to improve their season record to 14-11. James Paxton started for the Dodgers and pitched 4.2 innings, giving up five hits, one earned run, three walks and one strikeout.
In a postgame interaction with SportsNet LA, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts discussed James Paxton and the offense coming up big time.
"Well, I thought tonight the command was better. I still think that we're missing a gear, you know, with the swing and miss. I thought, you know, at times the fastball was good. But there's more swing and miss in there," Roberts said.
"But I love the compete. I love that he was attacking the strike zone. You know, I would have loved for him to go a little bit longer."
Although Roberts mentioned Paxton going longer, he was pulled off for the last out in the fifth to afford a better matchup. The decision worked, as the Dodgers bullpen pitcher Michael Grove cleaned it up.
Dave Roberts impressed with clutch hitting from Dodgers hitters
One reason that can be attributed to the Dodgers' recent skid was their inability to advance the runners and have them score on two outs.
However that changed on Tuesday night, as Kike Hernandez, James Outman and Miguel Rojas got some key RBIs for the Dodgers.
"Well, I think that obviously Kike had a big two out hit," Roberts said. "You know, I'm really good at bat. Miguel Rojas had another two out hit to give us a little cushion, a run score, you know, a base hit to score another run.
"And then, you know, James came off the bench and had a big hit. So those three guys came up huge for us."
In the ninth, Shohei Ohtani crushed a 450-foot home run to the right-center field to extend the lead to 4-1. Despite some late-inning drama, where a base running mistake potentially cost the Nats, the Dodgers secured the victory.