Dodgers to cap 'great road trip' with Ed Sheeran gig

PHOENIX -- One night after the now-viral beekeeper and Christian Walker’s walk-off shot had Chase Field buzzing, Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto showed the D-backs what a real pest looks like.

Yamamoto carved up Arizona on Wednesday by scattering five hits over six innings, striking out five in an 8-0 victory that was the Dodgers’ eighth in their last 10 games.

“I think I’ve been able to keep calm,” Yamamoto said via interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “That’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve been able to execute.”

It was another impressive step forward for Yamamoto, who has thrown back-to-back scoreless gems as he continues to erase the memory of his disastrous March 21 big league debut. The rookie allowed five runs while only recording three outs that day in Seoul, but he has a 1.64 ERA since.

“He’s continuing to build confidence, and with the confidence he’s finishing all of his throws,” manager Dave Roberts said. “The fastball has life, it’s in the zone, it’s commanded. The curveball played really well tonight, as did the split.”

The 25-year-old was able to cruise with a comfortable lead for much of this outing. Led by home runs from Andy Pages and Will Smith, the Dodgers plated six runs on six hits in three innings against D-backs starter Jordan Montgomery. Meanwhile, Arizona had no answer to Yamamoto’s dominance, and Los Angeles was able to put a cherry on top of a much-needed turnaround.

“I think the sign of a good team is knowing that we had already banked a positive road trip, but to still focus on something important, which was to win a series,” Roberts said. “We did that. We didn’t let down.”

A hot streak like this always has several contributors. Shohei Ohtani alone has had games in which he passed Hideki Matsui on the all-time home run list for Japanese-born players, crushed the Dodgers’ hardest-hit homer of the Statcast era and recorded the hardest-hit ball in MLB so far this season.

While the heroics of Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are almost a given, it was suggested during the Dodgers’ struggles that the bottom half of the order wasn’t doing its part. Those conversations seem so long ago after Pages, Teoscar Hernández and Miguel Rojas helped champion this turnaround.

“I think that if you look at these [last 10 games] and the production that the bottom half [of the lineup] has given us, that narrative should be silenced a little bit,” Roberts said.

Roberts identified the lineup’s two-strike hitting as one of the reasons for the Dodgers’ sharp rebound since falling to 12-11 on the season and securing a third straight losing series on April 20.

The numbers bear that out.

Dodgers’ two-strike hitting

Until April 20: .188 (5th in MLB)
Since April 21: .222 (2nd in MLB)

That two-strike approach proved particularly pesky for D-backs pitchers in the series opener, as the Dodgers turned in their first zero-strikeout game since Aug. 28, 2006.

“They were just fighting, they were competing,” Roberts said. “And to not strike out when you have many, many two-strike counts and you put the ball in play, take good swings, win pitches -- that’s fight.”

The hitters have also stepped up during those at-bats where it matters the most. While the early weeks of the season saw the Dodgers too often coming up short with runners in scoring position, they’ve turned that around during this hot stretch.

Dodgers’ hitting with RISP

Until April 20: .244 (19th in MLB)
Since April 21: .301 (5th in MLB)

“I just like the way that we’re getting hits and not just going for slug,” Roberts said. “Like I always use that golf analogy -- our guys are using different clubs, and you have to when you play baseball.”

What’s the saying?

Drive for show, go the opposite way to advance the runners and turn the lineup over for dough?

Anyway, benefiting from this offensive turnaround has been the Dodgers’ pitching staff. And while still not perfect as the club deals with a lack of depth due to a slew of injuries, Roberts has seen a stark improvement.

Dodgers’ rotation ERA

Until April 20: 4.21 ERA (17th)
Since April 21: 2.36 ERA (5th)

Dodgers’ bullpen ERA

Until April 20: 4.40 (20th)
Since April 21: 1.19 (2nd)

“A lot of good baseball,” Roberts said. “Offensively, outside of last night, we were really good the entire road trip, and then the pitching and the defense has been the best we’ve had all year.”

Before the Dodgers return to Chavez Ravine for a showdown with the Braves on Friday, they have one more piece of business on Thursday: The Dodgers Foundation’s annual Blue Diamond Gala, featuring a private concert starring four-time Grammy award-winning superstar Ed Sheeran.

“We have an off-day tomorrow, we have a big gala that I think we can all let our hair down a little bit -- what little hair I have,” Roberts said. “It’s gonna be a fun night, and an exclamation point on a great road trip.”