Will Smith, Gavin Stone return to life as Dodgers beat Brewers

The Dodgers welcomed back two long-lost members of the team who have been here all season. You might remember them. Veteran catcher by the name of Will Smith. Young pitcher by the name of Gavin Stone.

Both were prominent contributors in the first half, Smith making his second straight All-Star team and Stone positioning himself for National League rookie-of-the-year consideration. Then both went missing in action for a month or more.

But that battery got a much-needed jump start Tuesday night, Smith delivering three hits, including his first homer in more than a month, and Stone throwing five strong innings for his first win in seven weeks to lead the Dodgers to a 7-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in American Family Field.

Smith had hit .094 (five for 53) with a .339 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, one double and five RBIs in his previous 14 games since July 22, dropping his season average from .271 to .245 and OPS from .828 to .757. He hadn’t hit a home run since his four-homer barrage against the Brewers in Los Angeles on July 5 and 6.

But Smith paced a 13-hit attack on Tuesday with a solo homer in the second inning, a single during a five-run rally in the fourth and a double in the fifth for his first multiple-hit game since July 30, helping the Dodgers (71-49) increase their win streak to five.

Stone threw a four-hit shutout against the White Sox in Chicago on June 26 to improve to 9-2 with a 2.73 ERA in his first 15 starts of the season.

The 25-year-old right-hander then went 0-3 with a 6.91 ERA in his next six starts, yielding 21 earned runs and 45 hits — eight of them homers — in 27 ⅓ innings for a .366 average and 1.072 OPS against, dropping him to 9-5 with a 3.71 ERA on the season.

But Stone looked much sharper Tuesday night, giving up one earned run and three hits in five innings, striking out six and walking none, to improve to 10-5 with a 3.63 ERA.

Stone pitched around a one-out double in the first inning, escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam in the second and struck out the side — Willy Adames, Garrett Mitchell and Rhys Hoskins — with fastballs of 95, 95 and 96 mph.

Stone then retired the side in order in the fifth before yielding to right-hander Landon Knack, who gave up one run and three hits over the final four innings for his first career save, allowing the Dodgers to rest all of their high-leverage relievers for the final two games of the four-game series.

Stone, who relied heavily on a four-seam fastball that averaged 95 mph and an 88-mph changeup, threw 86 pitches, 61 for strikes.

Smith capped a nine-pitch at-bat in the second inning by turning on a 93-mph sinker on the inner-half from right-hander Colin Rea and sending a 412-foot drive over the wall in left field for his 16th homer of the season and a 1-0 lead.

Shohei Ohtani’s NL-leading 37th homer of the season, a 109-mph laser that traveled 413 feet into the second deck in right field, pushed the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0 on the third, but the Brewers cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the third when William Contreras hit a towering solo homer to left off Stone.

The Dodgers then blew the game open during a five-run, six-hit fourth inning in which they batted around against Rea.

Teoscar Hernández led off with a single to center field, and Gavin Lux lined a first-pitch sinker 413 feet to right field for a two-run home run and a 4-1 lead. Lux, the team’s hottest hitter for the past month, is batting .345 (29 for 84) with five homers, seven doubles, 20 RBIs and 11 runs in 27 games since July 11.

Smith followed with a soft single to left-center and took third on Miguel Rojas’ double to right. Kiké Hernández’s sacrifice fly to left made it 5-1, and No. 9 batter Andy Pages lined a two-run home run off the bottom of the left-field foul pole for a two-run homer–his first since June 18–and a 7-1 lead.

Short hops

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, sidelined since June 16 because of a rotator-cuff strain, threw a two-inning, 40-pitch bullpen session in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The right-hander is scheduled to join the team in St. Louis on Friday to throw a two-inning simulated game, after which the Dodgers will determine if he is ready for a minor league rehab stint. … Jack Flaherty is scheduled to start Thursday’s series finale against the Brewers. Roberts said he hasn’t decided if Tyler Glasnow will start Friday night against the Cardinals on regular rest or if the team will insert a spot starter — most likely left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who would have to be called up from triple-A Oklahoma City — and push Glasnow back to Saturday.