Teoscar, Skubal lead Dodgers to sixth straight win

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have spent much of this season making the extraordinary look routine.

On Tuesday night, they won a game the less glamorous way.

Tarik Skubal gave them seven-plus innings. Teoscar Hernández kept finding ways to get on base. The bullpen finished what Skubal started. And when it was over, the Dodgers had a 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, their sixth consecutive win and tying a season-high in wins.

The victory moved the Dodgers to 88-57 and trimmed its magic number to clinch the NL West to seven. It also gave the Dodgers a three-game cushion over the Atlanta Braves for the National League's No. 2 seed.

It wasn't Skubal at his most overpowering. It may have been something more valuable. It was efficient.

For the first time as a Dodger, and only the second time this season, Skubal worked into the eighth inning, throwing 7⅓ innings, allowing four hits and two runs while striking out five and walking two on 94 pitches.

“I don’t think I’ve thrown the ball as well as I know I’m capable of yet,” Skubal said.

That might be the most encouraging part for the Dodgers.

Skubal navigated the Cincinnati lineup with relatively little trouble early, allowing his first hit in the third inning to Dane Myers. Then came Elly De La Cruz.

Skubal threw De La Cruz an 87-mph changeup on the first pitch of their matchup.

De La Cruz crushed it.

The ball traveled an estimated 444 feet into the left-field pavilion, erasing the Dodgers' early two-run advantage and tying the game.

That was it.

Skubal didn't allow another run.

“I’m constantly working on stuff,” Skubal said. “Especially fastball command. Right now I’m missing high up.”

The Dodgers needed every bit of the length he provided.

“It’s good to take some load off the bullpen,” Skubal said. “They’ve been doing such a great job recently. It’s good to return the favor.”

The Dodgers had given him an early lead.

Will Smith supplied the first blow, launching a solo home run off Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo in the first inning. It was Smith's seventh homer of the season and his first since returning to the lineup, and his first since May 29.

The Dodgers added another run in the second when Tommy Edman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Then the game settled into a grind.

And Hernández kept making himself impossible to ignore.

Hernández reached base four times, going 3-for-3 with two singles, a triple, a walk and the eventual go-ahead RBI. The fifth-inning single broke a tie and put the Dodgers back in front, 3-2.

It also extended a remarkable stretch for Hernández.

He has now driven in at least one run in six consecutive games. Over his last nine games, he is hitting .484 (15-for-31) with 12 RBI, two home runs and six walks.

“I knew at some point it was going to click,” Hernández said.

It has clicked in a big way.

“Everything is clicking right now for us,” he said.

His night nearly had an even more memorable ending.

With two outs, Hernández lined a ball into center field and raced around the bases. The ball got past the center fielder, and Hernández kept going, seemingly with a chance at his first career inside-the-park home run.

Then De La Cruz happened as he unleashed a throw home measured at 105.5 mph.

Hernández was out.

Quite easily, as it turned out.

“I think he’s the only one that can throw me out in that situation,” Hernández said. “I thought I was so close but then I watched the replay and I was not.”

Then, with a laugh: “I wanted to stay in the dugout.”

Dave Roberts could only appreciate the absurdity of it.

“To see a guy hit 400 feet and throw a ball 105.5 MPH, I put my fan cap on,” Roberts said.

The play went into the books as Hernández's second triple of the season, but it was another example of what he has provided the Dodgers lately: pressure, production and a knack for changing a game.

And on a night when the Dodgers didn't overwhelm the Reds, they didn't need to.

Skubal kept the Reds from doing much damage. Hernández delivered the go-ahead hit. Smith provided an early spark. The bullpen closed the door.

A win is a win.

“A win is a win, it doesn’t matter how they come by,” Skubal said. “My job is to keep us in the ball game. All that matters is winning. I don’t care if we win by 10, I don’t care if we won by one, it doesn’t matter, as long as we win.”

For a Dodgers team increasingly focused on October, Tuesday offered another useful reminder: not every postseason-caliber win is going to be pretty.

Some will be 3-2.

Some will require your ace to go deeper than he has gone all season.

Some will require your hottest hitter to reach base four times and drive in the winning run, before getting thrown out at home by a 105-mph rocket.

The Dodgers will take all of them. They'll take the six-game winning streak, too.