LOS ANGELES — It was a forgettable line in a forgettable box score: in the fourth inning of the Dodgers’ game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Aug. 21, Brian Dozier pinch hit for pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu. Dozier struck out against Daniel Poncedeleon, and the inning ended quietly. The Dodgers stranded two runners in scoring position and the Cardinals ultimately won the game.

The story lies in the strategy.

Ryu had thrown 72 pitches to that point. Manager Dave Roberts said he planned only one more inning for Ryu, and the benefit of stretching his starting pitcher was dwarfed by Dozier’s potential to drive in a run.

“When you’re having a tough time scoring runs, you look at potential opportunities to tack on a run or two in a certain spot,” Roberts said after the game. “We have a better chance to put up zeroes and put up a couple runs with Dozier.”

Even though that decision backfired, it will hardly deter Roberts. Since he became the manager in 2016, the Dodgers lead all of baseball in pinch-hit at-bats by a significant margin.

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Pinch hitters are far more popular in the National League, where the opportunity to replace a pitcher with a position player represents a significant upgrade. This year, no NL team has gotten more hits (55), RBIs (32) or a higher on-base plus slugging percentage (.775) than the Dodgers.

Roberts believes it’s a credit to the players on his bench, not his own sense of timing.

“It seems like there’s four guys that could be in any major league lineup on a particular night,” he said. “I don’t see any other big league clubs that can say that.”

However, this is not why Roberts pinch hits more aggressively than his counterparts.

In 2016, Dodger pinch hitters ranked 13th in the NL in OPS – .567, the equivalent of sending Zack Greinke to the plate – yet Roberts still liked his bench enough to pinch hit more frequently than his counterparts. The gap has narrowed slightly this year, but the Dodgers (215) still began the week with nine more at-bats from pinch-hitters than the next closest team, the San Francisco Giants (206).

Does the aggressive strategy flow from the personnel, or from the manager?

“It’s a reflection of conversations that I’ve had with the front office, with players, coaches, and my trying to grow my mind,” Roberts said. “When I played, coached, there wasn’t a whole lot of pinch hitting. To call a guy from the on-deck circle and hit for him, that’s a gut punch. That’s something that I feel is the best way to manage our roster, to give us the best chance to score runs. It just takes the buy-in from the players to understand this is the best thing for the Dodgers.”

The strategy, then, is more likely to come from the front office than the clubhouse. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman upgraded the Dodgers’ lineup by acquiring infielders Manny Machado and Brian Dozier at the trade deadline, rather than bolster the team’s pitching staff.

Dozier and Machado have bumped former starters such as Matt Kemp, Chris Taylor and Max Muncy to the bench regularly. Now, Roberts has even more of a potential upgrade when it is his pitcher’s turn to bat.

For his part, Friedman said he wasn’t aware the Dodgers were leading the league in pinch-hit at-bats.

“That’s not something we set out to lead the league in,” he said.

Veteran Chase Utley leads the Dodgers in pinch-hit at-bats (29) and pinch hits (13) this season. A prolific second baseman at his peak, Utley wasn’t always accustomed to coming off the bench. He wasn’t always good at it, either.

In 2016, Utley collected just two hits in 11 pinch-hit at-bats. Last year he went 9 for 33. This season, his .484 on-base percentage and .621 slugging percentage is the equivalent of bringing Ted Williams off the bench on a whim.

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Dodgers’ Max Muncy: ‘You have to realize that it really isn’t about you’ “Definitely there was an adjustment process,” Utley said. “You see three or four at-bats during the game, and you get in a rhythm as the game goes along. You don’t have that opportunity when you’re pinch hitting. You try to do as much homework on the pitcher you’re going to face and essentially, for me, try not to do too much because you know that’s your only opportunity. You want to be ready to hit early and just try to put the ball in play.”

If there is a science to pinch hitting, it seems unrefined by the standards of baseball in 2018. Both Utley and Muncy, never a frequent pinch hitter until recently, described learning how to pinch hit as a trial-and-error process: studying opposing relief pitchers, determining who they’re likely to face on a given night, deciding when to get warmed up in a batting cage, and how to prepare once they’re in there.

“You just try to figure out what works for you,” Utley said. “You don’t feel the same every single day, so you have to try to recognize how you feel that day and counteract that with what the pitcher’s going to do.”

The Dodgers seem to have mastered this process as much as any major league club. It took a couple years – and a buy-in on the individual level, Roberts said.

“If they’re not starting that day, and they don’t feel good about it, and they’re not preparing themselves the right way, that’s going to bleed into not having success,” Roberts said. “Our guys, to their credit, have bought in and prepared themselves the right way.”

ALSO

Julio Urías pitched two scoreless innings in his fourth appearance for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, his first since being optioned on Saturday. The left-hander walked the leadoff batter in each inning, but he struck out four and induced two groundouts. He’s expected to join the Dodgers once he’s eligible to be recalled Sept. 3. … Josh Fields allowed two runs in one-third of an inning for OKC on Monday, the second of back-to-back nights for Fields, who allowed one run in two-thirds of an inning Sunday. … The Dodgers signed right-handed pitcher Zach McAllister to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Oklahoma City. McAllister, 30, was released by the Cleveland Indians on Aug. 7 after posting a 4.97 ERA in 41 games this season. He was claimed by the Detroit Tigers three days later and allowed eight runs in 3-1/3 innings. … McAllister is eligible for the Dodgers’ postseason roster. … Oklahoma City outfielder Alex Verdugo and pitcher Manny Banuelos were selected to the All-Pacific Coast League team. Verdugo led the PCL with a .335 batting average at week’s end, and Banuelos ranked among the league’s top 10 in ERA (3.59) and strikeouts (126). … The Dodgers’ game in St. Louis on Sept. 16 was selected for a “Sunday Night Baseball” telecast on ESPN. The Dodgers begin a six-game homestand the following day.

UP NEXT

Dodgers (RHP Walker Buehler, 6-4, 2.96 ERA) at Texas Rangers (RHP Ariel Jurado 2-3, 6.40 ERA), Tuesday, 5 p.m., SportsNet LA (where available)