LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers guard game strategy with military precision, but there’s no secret when it comes to
Yet, Pederson conceded he has been struggling. He hadn’t homered since April 21. He came into the game in a 3-for-30 tailspin. It got to his head enough that he resorted to a desperate measure.\n\n“I was scuffling a little bit and picked up Max Muncy’s bat,” Pederson said. “He’s been swinging it well, and it’s got a lot of pop. I don’t know, I guess the rest took care of itself. I like that bat right now. It’s a good bat.”\n\nPederson now has 11 multi-homer games, and this was his third this season.\n\nHe led off the bottom of the first against Anibal Sanchez with a home run halfway up the right-field pavilion, his 14th career leadoff homer, tied for second on the Dodgers’ all-time list with Rafael Furcal but only one-half of Davey Lopes’ 28.\n\n“Got good energy at the start of the game and looking for a good pitch,” he said.\n\nPederson then led off the fifth inning with a home run into the right-field bullpen. David Freese expanded the lead with a two-run shot with two outs in the seventh inning. The Dodgers are 23-8 in games when they hit at least one home run.\n\n“Definitely not trying to hit homers,” Pederson said. “I tried to my last at-bat \\[a groundout\\], and it doesn’t work. I have an overly aggressive swing. I definitely try to hit the ball really hard, because I think good things happen when you hit the ball hard. My goal is to hit the ball on the barrel as much as possible.”
Pederson’s homers gave an early cushion to