After two straight days out of the starting lineup, then two straight strikeouts to start his game Monday night, James Outman’s season-opening slump appeared to reach a nadir entering the seventh inning at Target Field.
Then, with one hanging slider and one cathartic swing, the Dodgers’ second-year center fielder finally found a reprieve.
In the team’s 4-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, it was Outman’s solo blast that put the Dodgers in front for good, a towering 353-foot blast that sailed just high enough to clear the towering wall in the right-field corner.
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It didn’t mean Outman had the biggest night offensively, not after Shohei Ohtani recorded his fifth-straight multihit game by doubling twice early and homering for the third time this season later in the seventh inning.
But, following a troubling four-for-34 start, Outman’s contribution might have been the most important development — not only to the final score, but also the trajectory of what has been a slumping second season for him.
The Dodgers also got a strong start from left-hander James Paxton, who gave up two runs in a six-inning, three-hit, four-strikeout performance.
Then, after the go-ahead seventh-inning blasts from Outman and Ohtani — who is now 11 for his last 22 with eight extra-base hits — the club’s preferred trio of late-game relievers also came through, with Ryan Brasier, Daniel Hudson and Evan Phillips pitching a scoreless inning each.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
