'We needed this one badly': Teoscar walks it off for Dodgers sweep

LOS ANGELES -- As the Dodgers squandered opportunity after opportunity on Sunday, they desperately waited for someone to deliver the big hit that eluded them all afternoon.

They had to wait much longer than expected, but as he’s done all season, it was Teoscar Hernández who once again delivered the big hit, a walk-off single in the 10th inning to lead the Dodgers to a 6-5 win over the Pirates on Sunday at Dodger Stadium, completing the three-game sweep.

Hernández is the only player in the Majors with two walk-off hits since the start of July.

“Runs batted in means something. That’s the name of the game,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “Pitchers pitch you differently, hitters respond differently when it gets hot with runners in scoring position, and Teo’s heartbeat doesn’t rise. … It’s hard to find a guy that you want in that spot more than Teo.”

It wasn’t all pretty for the Dodgers on Sunday. They started the afternoon going 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position, and it looked like they were going to waste a golden opportunity to sweep the Pirates, the last team below .500 they’ll see for a couple of weeks.

But after Pittsburgh took the lead in the top of the 10th, Kiké Hernández got things started in the bottom half with an RBI double off Pirates closer David Bednar to tie the game back up at 5. Kiké, who started wearing glasses right before the All-Star break, has seen his production rise over the last few weeks, especially in clutch situations.

“Just stay the course,” Kiké Hernández said. “Been feeling good for a couple weeks now, so just trying not to think too much about it. Just trying to ride that wave and do my part.”

Four batters later, it was Teoscar Hernández’s turn to play the hero again. Both Kiké and Teoscar have joked for months that they’re cousins because they share the same last name. On Sunday, they also shared being clutch in big moments.

“I think that’s in our blood,” Teoscar Hernández joked. “We’re just having good at-bats right now, trying to put everything together and help the team.”

Though it wasn’t perfect, the Dodgers got exactly what they needed this weekend. After Thursday’s off-day, the Dodgers saw their lead atop the National League West shrink to 2 1/2 games, the closest it had been since the morning of April 26.

After months of cruising through the schedule and worrying strictly about the postseason, the Dodgers, all of a sudden, found themselves in the middle of a pennant race against the Padres and Diamondbacks.

This weekend, however, they got back to work. They got much better starting pitching, led by Tyler Glasnow, who allowed two runs over seven innings. The bullpen, even with a two-run homer given up by Anthony Banda, also looked more like themselves.

Offensively, the Dodgers will now get Mookie Betts back healthy on Monday against the Brewers. A week after that, the Dodgers are set to get Tommy Edman and Max Muncy back from the injured list, giving their offense even more firepower.

“When you’re in a tight race, everything is important,” Roberts said. “And that highlights things you might not be as good at or you need to get better at, and so this is where we’re at. We all need to be hypercritical of performance. As far as the pennant race, this is a result of that. … It’s going to make us better.”

As Roberts alluded to, the Dodgers know they’ll need to play better over the last month-and-a-half of the regular season. They’re about to embark on a stretch in which they play 20 consecutive games against teams that are currently over .500. It won’t be easy, but the Dodgers hope to build off the much-needed momentum they were able to gain this weekend.

“The rest of the division is playing great baseball, and if we keep losing games, they’re going to keep creeping up on us,” Kiké Hernández said. “At the same time, we can’t really worry about them. Just do what we got to do. If we win games, they can’t gain on us. And obviously, this coming off a frustrating series against the Phillies, we needed this one badly, and we were able to get it done.”