Resurgent Dodgers power past the Texas Rangers

The Dodgers thought they had found a spark during their series win over the New York Yankees last weekend.

Turns out, after a month of mostly middling play from the first-place ball club, they might have actually lit a raging, relentless summertime fire.

In their encore to a successful showdown in the Bronx, the Dodgers returned home to dismantle the defending World Series champions Tuesday night, cruising to a 15-2 rout of the Texas Rangers — their most lopsided win all season.

A week ago, the Dodgers were somewhat scuffling through the middle portion of their season. They went 12-12 from May 10 to June 5. They battled inconsistencies from the lineup and pitching staff for much of that stretch. And entering their showdown with the Yankees last weekend, they were looking for a “shot in the arm,” as manager Dave Roberts called it.

Five games later, that jolt has been received.

The team’s star-studded lineup has surged back to life, punctuating Tuesday’s season-high scoring output with four home runs in a seven-run sixth inning — the club’s first four-home inning since September 2021.

A banged-up pitching staff has maintained solid production, getting a strong six-inning, one-run start Tuesday from previously struggling left-hander James Paxton.

And, a month after the Dodgers staged a 14-2 run to open a large lead in the National League West standings, the team now appears to be on the verge of another scorching stretch in the schedule, enjoying contributions from all parts of the lineup, and all corners of the pitching staff, en route to winning four of their last five games.

Tuesday’s blowout began with a blast, when Will Smith carried a fly ball just deep enough for a three-run homer in the bottom of the first.

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Mookie Betts then broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth, lining a two-out, three-run, bases-loaded double to left field that gave the Dodgers a 6-1 lead.

But it wasn’t until the sixth inning that the club’s sizzling form at the plate became overwhelmingly clear.

In a span of four batters against Rangers reliever Grant Anderson, the Dodgers left the yard three times: a two-run blast from Shohei Ohtani to right, a solo shot from Freddie Freeman in the next at-bat, and another two-run homer from Teoscar Hernández, the reigning NL Player of the Week who is now second in the league with 17 home runs.

With two out in the inning, Jason Heyward took Anderson deep as well, giving the Dodgers their second five-homer game of the season.

The game was so out of hand by that point, the Rangers put a position player, catcher Andrew Knizner, on the mound in the bottom of the seventh and he did not give up a run or a hit in 1 2/3 innings.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.