LOS ANGELES — Everybody take a deep breath, the Dodgers just earned their best win of the year. After going up 3-1 after early homers from both Will Smith and Jason Heyward, it seemed as if Bobby Miller had the run support he needed to have a strong outing.

But against one of baseball’s best lineups, it was not going to be easy, and he got roughed up for the second straight outing, giving up 6 earned runs over 4 innings.. Now, I have to give Bobby some leeway here, as he is still a rookie and teams are starting to figure him out, but back-to-back outings of giving up 5+ earned runs is a bit concerning. Coming into his last start, Miller had thrown 16 consecutive scoreless innings. The Astros scored 6 unanswered runs to give them a commanding 7-3 lead.

Then, it got fun.

David Peralta jacked a 2 run homer to right to cut the deficit to 7-5 in the 7th, and in the 8th, all hell broke loose for the Astros. Jason Heyward hit a sac fly to make it 7-6 and then the suddenly hot again James Outman crushed a ground rule double to bring the Dodgers all the way back and tie the game at 7-7. Controversy struck right after, as Ryne Stanek, who was very very heated walking off the mound,  balked on a questionable call to then give the Dodgers the go ahead and eventual game winning run at 8-7. A quick and efficient 9th inning by Evan Phillips sealed the deal and the series win for the Dodgers.

Here are my three takeaways from the game:

This Team Has Fight

Say what you want about the offensive lulls, the bullpen woes, the questionable managerial decisions, but this team has some real fight to them. Something that the Dodgers lacked last year was the ability to fight back when all odds were against them, which was evident by their loss to the Padres in the first round. They just couldn’t take punches. This year, although the record and overall talent isn’t up to 2022 level, the young, fresh, energy that exudes from this team is awesome to see.

Offense Comes Through Again

The offense has been on fire, and tonight was the best version of the lineup that we can see. As I’ve mentioned in past articles, the offense is going to have to step up when the pitching falters. They did again, and in a big way, coming back from a 7-3 deficit to win another thriller 8-7, and this time the newbies came through. James Outman looks like the young stud that we saw in the first part of the season, and Jason Heyward is continuing his redemption year and power numbers that we saw from the prime version of him.

The Newbies are Showing Up

Like I mentioned in the recap yesterday, James Outman has been hot as of late, but he is not the only one. David Peralta has been hitting like he’s 5 years younger, Jason Heyward is having a career resurgence, and J.D. Martinez is proving himself as one of the most underrated pickups of the offseason. Even Miguel Rojas’ bat has come around as of late. This is one of the core reasons the Dodgers are on a winning streak. Sure the pitching has kept them in games, but the offense today completely bailed out that pitching and if they can do that, things are looking up for this team. 

The Dodgers will send Tony Gonsolin out to toe the rubber against Hunter Brown for the Houston Astros Sunday. The first pitch is set for 4:10 PM PST.