The Dodgers have scored 11 runs over their last two games and will take a three-game winning streak into Saturday's meeting with Angels right-hander José Soriano. After a stretch in which run production had gone quiet, Los Angeles has at least shown signs of life again.
That matters because the Dodgers had averaged only 3.43 runs over a 14-game span between April 25-27 and the current surge, a skid that included nine losses. They scored four, five and six runs in their last three games, and that was enough to produce consecutive games with at least five runs for the first time since April 25-27. The club's two longest streaks this season of scoring at least five runs are four games from April 3-6 and three games from April 25-27.
Managerial relief has come from more than the lineup. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman each had rare nights off during the recent run, yet the offense kept moving. The pitching staff backed it up with two shutouts during the three-game winning streak, a reminder that Los Angeles has been winning with balance rather than one explosive night carrying the load.
It is still hard to read too much into two games, but this is better than what came before it. The Dodgers are now producing more consistently than they did during the six-game spell that preceded the burst, and the timing is useful. After a bullpen game, they could use a starter who can work deep into the contest and keep the relief corps from being asked to cover too much again.
That is where the matchup with Soriano becomes important. The right-hander has allowed zero or one run in seven of his nine starts this season, so Los Angeles may need another clean night from the rotation as much as it needs another productive one from the bats. Justin Wrobleski has lasted six innings in each of his last five starts and has gone 8 2/3 innings in one of his six starts since joining the rotation, giving the Dodgers a chance to lean on a starter who can match the moment if the offense keeps its foot on the gas.
The better question now is not whether the Dodgers have found a season-saving rhythm. It is whether they can turn a brief rebound into something sturdier before the calendar moves them into another run of games that exposes how fragile the offense looked only a week ago.
