Alexander: Dodgers don’t need home runs in Game 1 of NLDS

Those who watch the Dodgers regularly understand the meaning perfectly when one of their hitters gets on base with, shall we say, an inelegant hit, and his peers in the dugout all start shaking their hands sideways, palms in.

For the uninitiated, it means, “Barrels are overrated.” In other words, you don’t have to hit it on the screws to be productive.

And with whatever remains of their postseason being played in a ballpark that might as well be the epitome of Texas – everything is bigger, or at least is made to seem that way – their success in moving forward may depend on how well they can score without copious numbers of home runs.

Tuesday night in Globe Life Canyon, which isn’t really its name but should be, the Dodgers had four balls die on the warning track, and were being no-hit one out into the sixth inning by a franchise that not only has never had one of its pitchers throw a no-hitter but was in the midst of an unintended bullpen game.

The Dodgers ended up winning Game 1 of the Division Series against the Padres, 5-1, and their winning rally in the sixth consisted of a walk to Chris Taylor, Mookie Betts’ double into the left field corner, a sacrifice fly by Corey Seager, a roller to right against the shift by Justin Turner for an RBI single, a double to left center by Max Muncy, an infield single by Cody Bellinger for an RBI and a wild pitch to score another run.

Having displayed such offensive dexterity, as opposed to just mashing as they’ve done so often, the Dodgers may already have the Padres by the neck. San Diego got 24 pitches out of starter Mike Clevinger before he had to leave the game, his elbow apparently an issue again, after falling behind 2-0 to Bellinger leading off the second inning. The Padres wound up using nine pitchers, tying their own postseason record, and those pitchers gave up 10 walks, an NLDS record.

Is the Padres’ pitching compromised? They didn’t need to use Trevor Rosenthal, Drew Pomeranz or Emilio Pagán on Tuesday, so the back end of their bullpen is rested for Game 2 on Wednesday night. But if they don’t get some length from one or two of their starters over the next couple of nights, they may be in trouble.

Seeing as many relievers as they did Tuesday was in itself a positive for the Dodgers over a long series.

“It’s always our goal to get into teams’ bullpens, especially in the postseason, to try to get into the bullpens as early as possible and make those guys have to earn a lot of outs,” Turner said. “As the series goes on, you get those guys out there over and over again. You wear them down, you end up getting more mistakes.”

Maybe, in time. some of those mistakes might even go over the fence, but it’s probably not wise to count on it.

The Dodgers led baseball in home runs during the regular season with 118, and they hit five during an August series in Arlington against Rangers pitching. But Tuesday the ball didn’t seem to carry appreciably better with the roof open, on a 79-degree night, than it has with the roof closed all season.

Case in point: A.J. Pollock crushed one in the fifth inning with two on and two out, after Bellinger had reached base on what was scored a throwing error by second baseman Jake Cronenworth to score the tying run. It could have blown the game open right there, but Jurickson Profar snagged it on the warning track.

Presumably, nobody on the bench waggled their hands then, but you get the idea. On a night like that, in a park like that, launching the ball isn’t always best.

“I put my hands up at first base,” Bellinger said. “I thought he got it. Looked up, it was 95 (exit velocity) off the bat, I think. I was surprised that it stayed in.”

And in the eighth, Muncy hit one that center fielder Trent Grisham likewise caught on the track. The previous inning, Kiké Hernandez and Betts both hit deep balls that were caught at Globe Life and probably would have been out at Dodger Stadium.

(Any Dodgers watching the A’s and Astros earlier in the day in their own ballpark probably had pangs of jealousy. Five balls left the yard in that game, two of them by Houston’s George Springer.)

How did that “barrels are overrated” ritual start, anyway?

“CT,” Bellinger said, referring to Taylor. “I think it was in 2017. I don’t remember exactly what happened. I think he had a few hits where we say our thumb fell off, where it kind of hurts when you get jammed and you just kind of shake it off. That’s just kind of been our thing for the past few years.”

All of that said, Dodger hitters probably will not change their approaches radically.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s like ‘keep the ball on the ground,’ ” Turner said. “We hit a few homers in the series earlier this year here, so you can hit it over the fence.

“But it’s not about hitting home runs. It’s about hitting balls hard and taking good at-bats. And eventually, we broke them down. We found some holes and it actually happened to be the not-so-hard-hit balls that resulted in more runs for us.”

Whatever works.