Teoscar Hernandez's walk-off heroics might've broken Dodgers out of hellish RISP stretch

Is there anything more healing in baseball than a walk-off win? Not only does your team win in one of the most exciting ways possible, but it also essentially absolves the entire team of any mishaps and wrongdoings up until that point.

For the Los Angeles Dodgers, Teoscar Hernandez's game-winning double against the St. Louis Cardinals' helped ease the pain of the team’s recent abysmal stretch of hitting with runners in scoring position.

Obviously, one moment doesn’t physically erase countless questionable at-bats or frustrating performances from the Dodgers’ lineup over the last few games, but it might just help spark a change. As noted by Nelson Espinal of Dodgersnation, the team’s offense had reached a fairly dubious mark prior to Hernandez's walk-off hit against Cardinals’ closer Riley O’Brien. Dodgers’ hitters had been hitless over their last 24 at-bats with RISP.      

The game of baseball can be a very infectious sport. When an offense is rolling, it can feel like every hitter in the lineup is at the top of their game. As a fan, you just have that feeling that any inning can lead to a massive rally.

However, things can also go another way. Slumping teams can almost be painful to watch, especially on the offensive side. And despite owning one of the best records in Major League Baseball, the Dodgers offense has certainly been slumping enough to make fans yearn for the days of a high-scoring team.   

Teoscar Hernandez’s walk-off hit could help the Dodgers in more ways than one   

The Dodgers have scored 687 runs, good for the fifth most in the entire league. At the same time, the club has stranded 999 runners on base, also good for the fifth most in all of baseball. As seen in their recent hitless stretch with runners in scoring position, the Dodgers’ bats have been subdued in high-leverage situations. Until Hernandez’s walk-off double, the Dodgers have struggled mightily in clutch situations. As a result, it has cost the team a number of winnable games.   

Perhaps even more concerning has been the team’s disappearing offense as a whole. Since the start of July, the Dodgers have simply not been as potent of a lineup as they were in the first half of the season. With a record of 27-27 in the team’s last 54 games, that subdued offense has scored just 4.18 runs a game. That is a far cry from the club's first 86 games when the offense scored 5.36 runs a game.  

Even with his late-game heroics, Hernandez is just in the middle of the pack when it comes to Dodgers’ hitters’ batting averages with RISP. His .264 average with RISP is good for 10th on the team. Meanwhile key players such as Kyle Tucker and Mookie Betts hover around the bottom. Regardless of the team, it’s tough to win ballgames when your best guys are coming up short in run-scoring opportunities. 

Now, you could point to Shohei Ohtani’s nagging knee injury as one of the biggest reasons for the Dodgers’ recent offensive woes. And while he is still having a productive season, he has clearly not been the same player since before his injury. That may have had a cascading effect on the entire lineup. Altogether, the Dodgers lineup has been stuck in the mud for awhile. Their walk-off win against the Cardinals could be that little push that frees them.

With another winning season already assured, the Dodgers are once again one of the best teams in all of baseball. But hitting with RISP still isn't always as automatic as you might assume for such a winning ball club.

With Hernandez’s walk-off hit, the team just might have something to rally behind and change the direction of their offense. As the club closes in on securing another postseason berth, they couldn't ask for a better time for the bats to wake up.       

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