Teoscar Hernández runs to first base after hitting a two-run double against the Detroit Tigers in the fifth inning of a 7-3 win Saturday at Dodger Stadium. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Based on the Dodgers’ original lineup, Teoscar Hernández would have been in the dugout during the biggest at-bat of Saturday night’s game.
Originally, on a night the Dodgers gave normal No. 2 hitter Mookie Betts a scheduled day off following his battle with a stomach virus last week, switch-hitter Tommy Edman was supposed to follow leadoff man Shohei Ohtani in the batting order.
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About an hour before first pitch, however, the team announced a change. Hernández was bumped up to second from the cleanup spot. Edman, who has been a significantly worse hitter from the left side of the plate since joining the Dodgers last year, was dropped to eighth against Detroit Tigers right-hander Reese Olson.
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The switch meant that when the Tigers intentionally walked Ohtani with a runner on third and two outs in the fifth, it was Hernández who came to the plate in a tied ballgame.
Sometimes in baseball, those are the fine margins on which contests can be decided.
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On cue, Hernández produced the biggest swing of the Dodgers’ 7-3 win, lining a two-run double inside the third-base bag to help the Dodgers extend their perfect start to the season to 5-0 — making them just the fourth defending champion in MLB history to begin their season with five wins.
“Just kind of thinking through things, I just felt that if you slide Teo up, I felt good about that,” manager Dave Roberts explained. “And it just worked out.”
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As in the preceding four wins, the Dodgers’ performance was far from flawless.
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Rookie phenom Roki Sasaki failed to get out of the second inning in his first Dodger Stadium start, struggling with his command again in a two-run, four-walk outing.
The Dodgers’ bats mustered only two early runs off Olson, with Freddie Freeman hitting a home run in the first and Andy Pages scoring on Michael Conforto’s double in the second (despite running through a stop sign from third-base coach Dino Ebel and getting bailed out by a wayward throw to the plate).
Then in the seventh, the Dodgers almost let the Tigers back into the game on two defensive miscues….