Friday night had seen a very specific streak come to an end for Miguel Rojas & the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team had won 24 consecutive games when the infield recorded a hit. Perhaps Saturday marked the start of a new one.
After a four RBI effort in the team's extra inning drubbing of San Francisco on Saturday, the Dodgers are now 13-0 this year when Rojas records a run knocked in. Rojas broke the shutout with a single in the second, drew the Dodgers closer in the fourth, and gave the team their brief lead in the 10th. He drove the final nail in with a sacrifice fly in the 11th.
The effort Saturday nearly doubled Rojas' RBI total for the month, as he'd only recorded six for June prior to that. However, that singular category is far from representative of his contributions. Because Rojas has been downright remarkable in filling in for the injured Mookie Betts
Since Betts went down on June 16th, Rojas' slash goes .350/.386/.450/.836. He's struck out at the team's third-lowest clip (13.6 percent). In terms of the cumulative wRC+, his 139 mark trails only Shohei Ohtani & Freddie Freeman among Dodger regulars.
Such a stretch runs his season wRC+ up to 126, while hitting .297 & reaching base at a .344 rate. Those are all career bests in a full season. He's never been a major contributor in the power game, but even his .149 ISO represents the highest of his career, 2020 notwithstanding. He doesn't walk a ton, but the low-K, high-contact bat has been a boon for the bottom-half of the LA lineup sans Mookie Betts.
One imagines that even upon Betts' return, the team finds ways to get him involved more frequently than he had previously. Especially if Max Muncy continues to struggle in recovery or Gavin Lux in performance.