The Los Angeles Dodgers have found their groove again, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With the regular season winding down, the Dodgers swept into Oracle Park and took a crucial three-game series from the San Francisco Giants, capped by a dominant 10-2 victory on Sunday, September 14, 2025. The weekend’s offensive fireworks were a testament to the team’s renewed focus on fundamentals, situational hitting, and, perhaps most importantly, the relentless pursuit of consistency as they look to cement their place atop the National League West.
Saturday night’s contest set the tone for the series, as Shohei Ohtani launched his 49th home run—a towering 454-foot shot to center field—helping the Dodgers rally from an early 4-1 deficit. The blast not only pushed Ohtani ever closer to a second consecutive 50-homer season, but also extended his on-base streak to 18 games. Mookie Betts matched that mark, reaching base for the 18th straight game with a third-inning single and adding an RBI single in the fifth. The Dodgers’ offense roared to life with a six-run fifth inning, highlighted by Teoscar Hernández’s go-ahead two-run double after Giants starter Logan Webb was chased from the game. Miguel Rojas added a two-run double in the sixth, and Edgardo Henriquez (1-1) struck out the side in the fourth, earning his first career win. Despite a scare when Max Muncy was hit near the right ear by a pitch, he stayed in the game, embodying the Dodgers’ gritty determination.
“Quality of at-bat, winning pitches, using the whole field, not punching [out]—I think all those things, you know it’s in there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the team’s offensive resurgence. “We’ve seen it. Maybe not with the consistency we would’ve liked. But when you’re facing really good arms, to see us do what we did... it’s certainly encouraging.”
The Giants, meanwhile, saw their own playoff hopes take a hit. Patrick Bailey, who had delivered a 10th-inning grand slam the night before to snap the Dodgers’ four-game winning streak, contributed a two-run double on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to keep pace. San Francisco’s Jerar Encarnación, fresh off the injured list, chipped in with an RBI groundout in just his 11th game of an injury-riddled season. Yet the Giants remained a half-game behind the New York Mets for the third National League wild card spot, and the pressure was mounting.
Sunday’s series finale was all Dodgers from the jump. The team produced a staggering 18 hits, worked six walks, and scored in six of their nine trips to the plate. Teoscar Hernández continued his hot streak, going 4-for-5 and making him 11 for his last 24 at-bats. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Michael Conforto each tallied three hits, with Conforto’s performance nudging his batting average back to .200. The Dodgers combined for 16 singles and forced the Giants’ pitching staff to labor through 207 pitches—a masterclass in patient, disciplined hitting.
What’s remarkable is that the Dodgers did all this with Shohei Ohtani reaching base only once, and that didn’t come until his sixth at-bat in the top of the ninth inning. The offensive onslaught was built on fundamentals: shortening swings, using the big part of the field, and capitalizing on situational opportunities. It’s a shift from the earlier part of the season when the Dodgers relied heavily on the long ball, scoring via home runs at the fifth-highest percentage in the majors. Over the last two days, only one of their 23 runs required a ball to leave the yard.
The momentum started building in the second inning, when two walks and a Freeman single loaded the bases, setting up Kiké Hernández for a sacrifice fly. The third inning saw more smart baseball, as productive outs and a bobbled grounder from Giants third baseman Matt Chapman turned singles from Betts and Hernández into another run. The fifth inning was the turning point—a four-run rally that knocked Robbie Ray out of the game and put the Dodgers firmly in control. Freeman doubled to right, Conforto delivered a pinch-hit, bases-loaded single, and a run-scoring balk from reliever Joel Peguero added to the deluge. Walks from Tommy Edman and Ben Rortvedt kept the pressure on, and by the sixth inning, Rojas’s two-run single with the bases loaded made it 8-1, effectively icing the Dodgers’ sixth win in their last seven games.
“It’s quality at-bats, quality outs, moving guys over, getting sac flies, bringing defenses in if you move them over,” Freddie Freeman explained. “It creates more traffic, more things that are able to happen on the baseball field. Just think the quality of at-bats have been really good over the last week.”
Pitching was another bright spot for the Dodgers. Tyler Glasnow, who took the mound for the series finale, overcame early command issues—walking four and hitting a batter in his first three innings—to retire 10 straight and pitch into the seventh. He allowed just one run over 6 2/3 innings, lowering his ERA to 3.06 on the season and an impressive 2.66 since returning from a shoulder injury in July. “Since I got back from the IL, it’s been easier to kind of put [those kind of struggles] out of my head and go compete,” Glasnow said. “If my stuff sucks, it’s kind of whatever. Just compete, try to get in the zone, get some weak contact. It’s helpful.”
For the Giants, the weekend was a sobering reminder of just how unforgiving the playoff race can be. While Bailey and Encarnación provided some offense, and Webb and Ray each took their turns on the mound, the Dodgers’ relentless approach proved too much. With the loss, San Francisco remained a half-game behind the Mets in the wild card hunt and now faces a steep climb with just a couple weeks left in the regular season.
Looking ahead, the Dodgers remain 2 1/2 games up on the Padres in the NL West, with one key head-to-head matchup remaining against the Philadelphia Phillies. The team’s renewed commitment to fundamentals, paired with a surging offense and solid pitching, has them peaking at the right time. As Michael Conforto put it, “It’s definitely the kind of baseball we want to be playing down the stretch and for the rest of the season. I think we’re doing a lot of the little things right. That’s kind of been the theme as we finish up here.”
With the regular season’s final weeks looming, the Dodgers are looking like a team ready to make noise in October. Their latest series against the Giants showed just how dangerous they can be when everything clicks—offense, pitching, and the little things that turn contenders into champions.
