The Dodgers continued their season-long celebration of last year’s World Series triumph by handing out championship rings Monday. The 49,702 people who bought tickets got replicas while Gavin Lux, who played for the Dodgers last season and is now with the Cincinnati Reds, got a real one.
If the team hopes to win more jewelry again this fall, the next five weeks will be key. Because after Monday’s 7-0 win over the Reds, the Dodgers lead the Padres by a game in the National League West with 30 left in the regular season for both teams.
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And if the Dodgers (75-57) continue to play as they did Monday, when Andy Pages homered twice, driving in four runs, and Emmet Sheehan threw a career-high seven scoreless innings, they’ll be tough to catch.
The Reds nearly went ahead in the second after Lux doubled to the wall in right-center with one out. But Michael Conforto took extra bases away from Spencer Steer with a leaping catch in left field and Teoscar Hernández made a running catch of Ke’Bryan Hayes’ drive to the foul pole in the right-field corner to end the inning.
Sheehan was never in danger again.
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Pages, meanwhile, got the offense started in the third by driving a 102-mph fastball from Hunter Greene into the bullpen in left field for his 22nd home run of the season, second-most on the team behind Shohei Ohtani’s 45.
Pages hit another one in the fifth inning, following Conforto’s double into the right-field corner with another first-pitch homer into the seats next to the Dodgers bullpen to make it 3-0.
Greene (5-4) made it into the sixth but left after giving up a leadoff double to Freddie Freeman and a walk to Will Smith. Hernández followed by drawing a walk from reliever Scott Barlow and two outs later a grounder from Pages got under shortstop Elly De La Cruz’s glove, scoring two more runs.
A Mookie Betts’ homer, his second hit of the game, with one out in the seventh and a Pages’ sacrifice fly in the eighth closed out the scoring.
Sheehan (5-2) didn’t throw as hard as Greene but he pitched much better, holding the Reds (68-64) to two hits.
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Sheehan also matched a career high with 10 strikeouts to win his third straight decision while relievers Jack Dreyer and Anthony Banda completed the shutout, the team’s fourth in the last 23 games.
The Dodgers had only three shutouts in the first 109 games.
The team is getting healthier. Over the weekend, reliever Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates returned from the injured list and utility player Kiké Hernández was activated Monday. Third baseman Max Muncy and infielder/outfielder Hyeseong Kim could be back by the next road trip, if not before. Utilityman Tommy Edman and pitcher Roki Sasaki likely aren’t far behind.
Kiké Hernández almost didn’t make it, he said Monday. After going on the injured list July 6 with left elbow inflammation, he tried three injections and non-invasive rehab procedures, but nothing seemed to work.
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“I got to a point where I didn’t know if it was going to happen. We were pretty close to it not happening,” he said of his return. “There are some procedures that I went through that didn’t do anything. I went through four shots in a month, and first three didn’t do anything, and luckily the fourth one was the answer.
“After the last shot, I was pain free.”
Hernández, who has played every position but catcher and right field for the Dodgers this season, watched Monday’s game from the bench but said he would start Tuesday in left field, wearing a brace to protect his left elbow.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.