LOS ANGELES \u2014 Michael Conforto smacked a sharp drive to left with two outs in the eighth inning Thursday, and he celebrated at first base while Andy Pages scored the tiebreaking run for the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n
The big hit ended up deciding\u00a0the Dodgers\u2019 6-5 victory over the New York Mets. Yet it was much bigger than that to Conforto, who had done almost nothing worth celebrating in his dismal first season with the defending World Series champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a grind up to this point, and all I want to do is go up there and help us win,\u201d Conforto said. \u201cIn a lot of those situations, I\u2019ve come up short. To be able to come through today was everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up until that big moment, Conforto\u2019s first season with the Dodgers had largely been a disaster.<\/p>\n
The left fielder is batting .167 with a .581 OPS, producing just three homers and 10 RBIs in 212 plate appearances. Before he drove in Pages, Conforto hadn\u2019t had a hit with runners in scoring position since March 31, going 0 for 30.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not even close to what the Dodgers and their fans expected from Conforto, the longtime Mets outfielder who got a $17 million contract as a free agent last December following two solid seasons with the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles signed Conforto before Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez agreed to return, and Hern\u00e1ndez subsequently moved from left field to right to replace Mookie Betts, who moved to the infield permanently. The Dodgers handed an everyday spot in their star-studded lineup to Conforto, and they expected him to provide the same steady offense he has produced throughout his career.<\/p>\n
But since a six-game hitting streak to start the season, his production has plummeted.<\/p>\n
Conforto went 24 days between RBIs in May, repeatedly failing to deliver when the Dodgers needed him. He was in a 5-for-42 slump with 13 straight hitless at-bats before his eighth-inning RBI single Thursday \u2014 and that was after a 4-for-63 skid that consumed nearly a month of play.<\/p>\n
Conforto has been playing long enough to know that not even the loaded Dodgers will wait forever for him to get going. His teammates and coaches have praised his work ethic, but the veteran knows he has to end this season-long slump.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating,\u201d Conforto said. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the game, it\u2019s part of baseball, but there comes a time when you\u2019ve got to start performing and you\u2019ve got to start doing something for your team. Sometimes that makes it a little bit harder to stomach the bad at-bats, but you\u2019ve just got to keep moving forward and keep working. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been trying to keep my mind focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has kept Conforto in his everyday lineup despite his ineffectiveness. Conforto has played in 56 of their 63 games, with Roberts and the front office resisting the urge to try anyone else consistently.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s feeling the love and the support,\u201d Roberts said after Conforto\u2019s big hit. \u201cHe\u2019s been going through it, so I think that it\u2019s a huge exhale for him, hopefully. You get on the road and have a little bit of confidence, expect some good things to happen when he\u2019s at bat. Hopefully we can look back and say this is the turning point for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dodgers have kept chugging along atop the NL West despite Conforto\u2019s struggles \u2014 and despite 15 pitchers on the injured list making more than $100 million combined. Los Angeles won four of seven over the past week against New York\u2019s two powerhouse teams.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers still have the majors\u2019 top offense in several categories despite the conspicuous lack of production from left field, with their three former MVPs all delivering along with Will Smith and a revitalized Max Muncy. While Conforto has been mired in his slump, Pages has improved dramatically in his second big league season, posting a .838 OPS with 39 RBIs.<\/p>\n
And when Conforto finally got the job done Thursday, his teammates made sure to enjoy the moment with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who it is, what you\u2019re going through \u2014 for the guys in here, you\u2019re a teammate, you\u2019re a brother,\u201d Betts said. \u201cSo whatever you\u2019re going through, we\u2019re all going through. I think it was huge, and I think he felt the love in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Michael Conforto smacked a sharp drive to left with two outs in the eighth inning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,39,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4,185,10665],"class_list":{"0":"post-83522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-dodgers","12":"tag-ladodgers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesdodgers","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-top-stories-trt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114636258470564671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}