Dodgers figuring out how to score runs without Shohei Ohtani

Super Mario ran into a mushroom.Popeye devoured a can of spinach.The Dodgers are scoring runs in bunches again.Say what you want to say about the quality of opposition or small sample size, but the numbers are the numbers.Ninety-seven runs in their first 17 games of September.Nineteen home runs in their last nine games, including five in their 8-2 win over the Giants on Friday night.With a little more than a week remaining in the regular season, the Dodgers are finally starting to resemble the team they were expected to be.Even without Shohei Ohtani.The Dodgers doing this with Ohtani on the 15-day injured list is the most promising aspect of their recent offensive resurgence.

Because they will likely have to do something like this to give themselves a chance to complete their three-peat.Manager Dave Roberts reported Ohtani was “in a good spot” as a result of “a really productive last three to four to five days,” but the reality is that the Dodgers have no credibility on this subject whatsoever.Remember when general manager Brandon Gomes said earlier this month that Ohtani might pitch again this season? Or when Gomes said “nothing has indicated” Ohtani would have to be placed on the IL the day after a game in which he was shaking his arm and looking as if he was hitting on one leg?Knowing Ohtani, he will be in the Dodgers’ lineup when the playoffs start, but his presence will be more a reflection of his willpower than of his health.The Dodgers can’t count on him to produce, at least not with any consistency.Which is why it was important that Mookie Betts homered twice on Friday night.Or that Max Muncy, Kyle Tucker and Will Smith also went deep.Or that Ohtani’s replacement at designated hitter, 21-year-old rookie Josue De Paula, scored the run that tied the game in the fifth inning and doubled in the go-ahead run in the sixth.“It’s a high-floor talent level,” Roberts said.

“I just like the way we’re taking better team at-bats and making u...