After two straight days spent out of the starting lineup, then two straight strikeouts to start Monday night’s game, James Outman’s season-opening slump had reached 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 a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, it was Outman’s solo shot that put the Dodgers in front for good, a towering 353-foot fly ball that sailed just high enough to clear a tall wall in the right-field corner.
It didn’t give Outman 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.
Still, following a four-for-34 start, Outman’s contribution might have been the most important development Monday — not only to the final score, but also the trajectory of what had been a slow start to his second big league season.
“It felt good to see a ball land,” said Outman, who had been robbed on several hard-hit balls in the opening weeks. “It’s still pretty early in the season, so it feels a little early to freak out. But yeah, it’s a start in the right direction for sure.”
A year ago, Outman was a breakout piece in the Dodgers’ new-look outfield. Succeeding Cody Bellinger in center, he was selected the National League rookie of the month in both April and August. He finished the season with above-league-average marks in the field (where he ranked in the 90th percentile in “fielding run value,” per Baseball Savant) and at the plate (with an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .790).
He wasn’t immune to extended rookie struggles, including a .229 batting average from May through July. Yet, he found a way to maintain his status as a regular starter on a star-studded team.
“If there was any time to panic, it was last year, and he didn’t,” manager Dave Roberts said of the former seventh-round draft pick. “For us, and for him most important, to know that he can get to the other side of it is very helpful.”
That’s why, as Outman sat against back-to-back left-handed opposing pitchers Saturday and Sunday at Wrigley Field, he didn’t dwell on his poor start or drastically change his high-powered, but strikeout-prone, swing.
Instead, he enjoyed “the luxury of being able to think more about your swing or mechanical things,” he said.
Did that lead to any big epiphanies?
“No, no big ones,” he said with a laugh. “Just tinkering.”
The adjustment wasn’t instant.
In his first at-bat Monday, Outman whiffed on three fastballs around the edge of the strike zone.
His next time up, he punched out on three pitches, going down swinging on a fastball over the heart of the plate.
“He’s in the middle of it right now,” Roberts said. “He was grinding.”
Then, suddenly, he wasn’t.
With the score tied 2-2 entering the seventh — thanks to a strong six-inning, two-run start from veteran left-hander James Paxton — Outman worked a full count in the first at-bat of the inning.
The 2-and-2 offering was a low slider from Twins reliever Jay Jackson. The payoff pitch was another slider, only this time left hanging right down the middle.
With a sky-high swing, Outman launched the ball on an arcing 42-degree trajectory, typically too high to carry a big league fence. But, even on a crisp April night, the 26-year-old got enough behind it to find the first row of the seats.
“It definitely relaxes you more,” he said, “when you see balls land.”
From there, the Dodgers (9-4) didn’t look back.
Ohtani, who’d already doubled twice earlier in the game, went deep three batters later, giving him 11 hits (including eight for extra bases) in his last 22 at-bats.
The back end of the Dodgers’ bullpen also delivered. Ryan Brasier, Daniel Hudson and Evan Phillips each held the Twins (3-5) scoreless over the final three innings.
“We were sound and pretty seamless,” Roberts said, contrasting the performance with an error-filled defeat the day before. “It was nice that we came to life later in the game.”
The Dodgers might have a new superstition partially to thank.
After watching Ohtani swing a cricket bat during a rain delay Sunday, then return to the field and collect a pair of extra-base hits when the game resumed, Outman decided to do the same Monday.
“After I saw Shohei get two hits, I was swinging the cricket bat [pregame],” he joked afterward.
So, is the flat, rectangular paddle the Dodgers’ new secret weapon?
“I guess if it works for Shohei,” Roberts said with a chuckle, “it should work for anyone.”
Even the second-year slugger in the middle of an early season funk.
“Hopefully that’s a sign of more things to come,” Roberts said of Outman. “But I know he’s grinding every day to kind of work through some things.”
