Dodgers hold off Marlins with Shohei Ohtani reaching 49 stolen bases

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MIAMI — When Landon Knack was roughed up for five runs in two innings in Atlanta last Friday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts referred to it as “an outlier” in what has been a largely successful rookie year.

It’s hard to argue with that now.

Coming off his worst start, Knack turned in one of his best. He allowed just two hits over five scoreless innings as the Dodgers beat the Miami Marlins, 8-4, on Wednesday night.

The victory gives the Dodgers 90 wins for the 11th consecutive full season. The Dodgers (90-62) maintained their 3½-game lead over the second-place San Diego Padres (87-66) in the National League West and could clinch a 12th consecutive playoff spot as soon as Thursday. They lead the Milwaukee Brewers (88-64) by two games for the No. 2 seed in the NL playoffs, which comes with a first-round bye.

“It’s quite the accomplishment. I don’t really appreciate how fortunate we have been, how good we have been,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But when you look at it like that, it’s pretty impressive. It’s one of the best organizations in baseball as far as consistency of winning. We’ve had to go through our fair share of adversities and still win 90 games and being on the verge of clinching a postseason berth, you can’t take it for granted.”

In pursuit of his own accomplishment, Shohei Ohtani singled in the first inning and stole second base on the next pitch. It was his 49th stolen base of the season, leaving him two home runs and one stolen base away from the first 50-50 season in MLB history.

Ohtani went to third on a throwing error by the catcher but was out trying to score on a ground ball by Teoscar Hernandez and went hitless with two strikeouts in his next four at-bats.

As he has closed in on history, Ohtani is 6 for 32 (.188) over his past eight games.

Knack also gave up a single to the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the first inning and stranded him at third base after Xavier Edwards stole second and went to third on a bad throw.

Knack didn’t give up another hit until Nick Fortes singled with two outs in the fifth inning.

The right-hander had the same line – two hits in five scoreless innings – in a start against the Angels in June. He struck out just two in that game. He struck out seven Marlins on Wednesday.

“Just angrily stew over the last one,” Knack said of how he spent the four days between starts. “I was obviously not happy with that one, so I was just very angry, ready to bounce back from that a little bit and get things back on track.”

That anger might have led to the uptick in Knack’s fastball velocity. He averaged 94.5 mph on 52 four-seam fastballs, touching 96 mph, up from his season average of 93.3 mph and got six swings-and-misses with it.

“That was huge to be able to have that,” Knack said. “It was also just, the location on that was much better tonight. So just overall, the fastball just felt much, much better, just being able to put it more so where I wanted. Especially locating bottom of the zone. That opened up a lot of things.”

Knack has allowed two runs or fewer in eight of his 11 starts this year. That should be enough to put him on a postseason roster.

“I think so,” Roberts said. “You know what – he’s gonna get a couple more opportunities. I just really like the way he has an arsenal that can get different hitters out. He really commands the baseball. I just like the confidence that he’s exuding on the mound. So yeah, when you look out, look forward, he’s certainly really in the mix.”

By the time Knack left after five innings Wednesday, the Dodgers had built a 6-0 lead thanks to a five-run fourth inning. The Dodgers have scored four runs or more in an inning during each of their past four games.

Wednesday’s big inning featured a two-run home run by Tommy Edman and a three-run home run by Kiké Hernandez.

The Dodgers talked up a number of assets they valued when they acquired Edman – his versatility as a switch-hitter and his defense at multiple positions, mainly. No one mentioned his power. But Edman has now hit six home runs in his past eight games.

“Really surprised with the power,” Roberts said and he wasn’t alone.

“Honestly, kind of a little surprised,” Edman himself admitted. “The wrist didn’t feel good for a while (after surgery last fall). I was kind of expecting to be back for spring training and it kept lingering for a few months and finally started to feel good in June, July and then I sprained the ankle. I think actually spraining the ankle allowed my wrist to have some more time to recover and maybe that helped with being back to full strength once I started to play again.”

That big lead survived a rocky Dodgers debut by left-hander Zach Logue. Promoted from Triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday, Logue gave up hits to the only three batters he faced in the seventh inning and all three scored before Blake Treinen closed out the inning.

The Dodgers opened their lead back up with Chris Taylor’s two-run single in the eighth inning.

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Originally Published: September 18, 2024 at 6:39 p.m.

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