The Dodgers’ Will Smith is congratulated by third base coach Dino Ebel as he runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the second inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers starting pitcher Gavin Stone throws to the plate during the first inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Colin Rea pitches throws to the plate during the first inning of their game against the Dodgers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
The Dodgers’ Will Smith runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the second inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
The Dodgers’ Will Smith (16) is congratulated by teammate Miguel Rojas after hitting a home run during the second inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
The Dodgers’ Will Smith, left, is congratulated by teammate Teoscar Hernández, center, as he returns to the dugout after hitting a home run during the second inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani watches the flight of his solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani watches the flight of his home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani runs the bases after hitting a home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, right, is congratulated by third base coach Dino Ebel after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, right, is congratulated by third base coach Dino Ebel as he runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, left, is congratulated by teammate Freddie Freeman after hitting a home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, left, is congratulated by teammate Teoscar Hernández as he returns to the dugout after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers starting pitcher Gavin Stone throws to the plate during the first inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
The Milwaukee Brewers’ William Contreras celebrates as he runs the bases after hitting a home run during the third inning of their game against the Dodgers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
The Milwaukee Brewers’ William Contreras gestures as he runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Dodgers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
The Dodgers’ Gavin Lux runs the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
The Dodgers’ Gavin Lux gestures as he runs the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
The Dodgers’ Gavin Lux runs the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Colin Rea, right, reacts after giving up a two-run home run to the Dodgers’ Gavin Lux, left, during the fourth inning on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
The Dodgers’ Gavin Lux, right, celebrates with third base coach Dino Ebel as he runs the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
The Dodgers’ Gavin Lux, left, is congratulated by teammate Mookie Betts as he returns to the dugout after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Colin Rea throws to the plate during the third inning of their game against the Dodgers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
The Dodgers’ Andy Pages runs the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers third baseman Kike Hernández jumps after fielding a ground ball hit by the Milwaukee Brewers’ Joey Ortiz during the seventh inning on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, center, is congratulated by Manager Dave Roberts, right, as he returns to the dugout after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
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The Dodgers’ Will Smith is congratulated by third base coach Dino Ebel as he runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the second inning of their game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
MILWAUKEE — Clayton Kershaw has become a pretty good analyst, frequently donning a headset and chiming in from the dugout during broadcasts on SportsNet LA or national networks like TBS when he is not pitching.
He offered this bit of prognostication in the clubhouse after his start on Monday, though.
“We’re having our team look like what we want our team to look like,” he said of the return of injured players like Mookie Betts this week and the anticipated addition of others in the near future. “I think you’ll see us start to take off here soon.”
Maybe they already have.
The Dodgers hit four home runs in the first four innings on Tuesday night – one each by Shohei Ohtani, Gavin Lux, Will Smith and Andy Pages – and cruised to their fifth consecutive win, a 7-2 defeat of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The win kept the Dodgers (71-49) tied for the best record in baseball, now only with the Cleveland Guardians (the Baltimore Orioles lost Tuesday), and kept the surging Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres at arm’s length.
Smith started the scoring with his solo home run in the second inning. It was a long time coming.
Mired in a three-month slump, Smith hadn’t homered since July 6 – 22 games (for him) and 96 plate appearances ago. Smith hit just .145 between the home runs (and .191 since the end of May). But he added a single and a double in his next two at-bats.
“He needed it. He’s been grinding, man,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He just doesn’t show it from his demeanor. But he’s been working really hard. For him to square some balls up, keep a ball fair that was in, another ball in and he lined it to left field. Getting to that pitch, which he wasn’t getting to the last few weeks. Just to throw out some hits was a good thing.”
Smith did it from the sixth spot in the lineup. After batting him fourth for much of the season and occasionally second when Mookie Betts was out with his hand injury, Roberts dropped Smith to sixth this series.
“For me I just wanted to give him a different look, let the game come to him,” Roberts said. “I know he doesn’t feel pressure but I still believe that letting the game happen, it might in some way take a little pressure off.
“I still believe that, for us to be our best version of our ballclub, he’s got to be hitting fourth or fifth. But it goes to him swinging the bat well and earning that right.”
Smith acknowledged being frustrated by his slump – “It’s always frustrating when you’re struggling.” He made “several little adjustments” to get his “body moving right.”
“The load, where my hands were getting, just syncing everything up and connecting, using the ground,” Smith said. “I wasn’t far off. It’s a hard game so if you’re off just a little bit it’s hard to compete. Just grinding.”
It had been awhile for Pages as well. He lined a two-run home run off the foul pole down the left field line, part of a five-run fourth inning and his first home run since June 18. The rookie outfielder was a .228 hitter in the 40 games between home runs.
Lux’s two-run home run also came in the fourth inning, reaching the second deck in right field and matching his career-high for a season (seven). Five of those seven have come in a 29-game stretch in which Lux has batted .337 (30 for 89), turning around a season that took awhile to get going.
“He hadn’t played baseball in a calendar year. You start to wonder if I can ever hit again,” Roberts said. “But to his credit, he just kept grinding and worked his way through it. I think this is the best version of Gavin Lux I’ve seen.”
Ohtani’s 37th home run of the season (a solo homer in the third inning) was his fifth in 11 games this month, even though he only has nine hits in August (and is batting .191 since the end of July).
Everyone in the Dodgers’ starting lineup had at least one hit in the win.
In the six starts that followed, Stone had a 6.91 ERA and allowed at least three runs in five of the six. But Stone said the rough stretch wasn’t weighing on him.
“No, you know, just a long season,” he said. “You can’t get too high, can’t get too low.”
Against the Brewers, he allowed just one run on a solo home run by William Contreras (the ninth Stone has allowed in his past seven starts) while striking out six in five innings.
“I think that he’s a really good competitor. He was frustrated with the results, frustrated with his command,” Roberts said of Stone. “Tonight, it was good to see him, from the first pitch, just bow his neck, throw the ball over the plate. The stuff, the secondary, was really good. Teethy. Swing and miss. He was in control all night long.”
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