FLIP THE PAGE: Dodgers Close The Book On August With 6-1 Win Over Tigers

There are certain books you read because you cannot put them down. Then there are the ones you finish and immediately return to the shelf, preferably somewhere behind several better books.

August was that kind of book for the Dodgers.

With Sunday’s 6-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles closed out the month with a series sweep and, mercifully, turned the calendar page. The defending two-time World Series champions finished August 13-14, meaning they lost more games than they won.

That is not exactly the sort of math anyone around Chavez Ravine had penciled in when the month began.

But August is now officially somebody else’s problem.

September arrives Tuesday, and with it comes a return to Dodger Stadium, where the hope of turning things around can already be heard loud and clear. The Dodgers have spent much of the year reminding everyone that they are capable of playing very good baseball. August was simply an extended demonstration of what happens when they don't.

Sunday, at least, looked considerably more like the Dodgers everyone expects to see when the games matter most.

Tyler Glasnow looked locked in from the outset, making adjustments as the Tigers tried to solve him rather than waiting for the game to solve itself. He worked seven strong innings on just 85 pitches, allowing two hits and one earned run while walking one and striking out six.

“I was able to make some pretty good adjustments in between innings,” Glasnow said.

That is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Glasnow's efficiency was particularly welcome for a club that has spent too much of August making otherwise manageable games considerably more complicated than necessary. On Sunday, there was no such drama from the right-hander. He made his pitches, adjusted when Detroit made adjustments of its own and handed the game over after seven innings with the Dodgers in position to finish the job.

The offense eventually followed.

The middle of the Dodgers' order — Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández — provided the pressure, the production and, eventually, the crooked number everyone keeps talking about.

Freeman doubled in the sixth, and Hernández followed with a 434-foot two-run homer that gave Los Angeles a 3-1 lead. Freeman scored three times on the afternoon, while Hernández scored twice and drove in two.

The Dodgers then broke the game open in the eighth.

Betts doubled, Freeman walked and Hernández was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. A wild pitch brought Betts home, Max Muncy followed with a pinch-hit single and another wild pitch allowed Hernández to score.

Just like that, a game that had spent much of the afternoon threatening to become another episode of August baseball became a comfortable 6-1 victory.

And yes, about those crooked numbers.

The phrase has been getting plenty of mileage lately. It's cute. A little overused, perhaps, but cute.

At this point, however, Dodger fans probably aren't terribly concerned with whether the numbers on the scoreboard are crooked or straight. Twelve runs would be nice. Six runs will do. One run will do if it is one more than the other team.

Just win.

That seems to be the simplest September strategy available.

The Dodgers did leave six runners on base Sunday, including an early opportunity in the second inning when they had runners on second and third with one out and came away empty. They had stranded 21 runners over the first two games of the series, so the afternoon briefly appeared to be headed down a familiar August road.

Then the Dodgers did something they haven't always done lately.

They finished.

Teoscar Hernández put it plainly afterward.

“When we put a little more effort in the things that need to get done, positive things are going to happen,” Hernández said. “We are going to try to keep going like that, focus on good at-bats and playing the game.”

It isn't complicated. It doesn't require a new slogan, a motivational seminar or another visit from the Department of Flushing.

Speaking of which, perhaps the biggest request for September is that the postgame vocabulary finally retire the phrase, “We gotta flush it.”

There is nothing wrong with moving on from a loss. Baseball requires it. The next game arrives whether you are ready for it or not.

But after hearing about flushing losses for what feels like most of the summer, the pipes are full.

Maybe September can simply be about playing better baseball.

Manager Dave Roberts seemed perfectly content with Sunday's result and, notably, offered no complicated prescription for what comes next.

“We won a series, feels good so it’s a happy flight and enjoy the off day,” Roberts said.

Fair enough.

The Dodgers will get that off day, then return home Tuesday to begin a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Eric Lauer is scheduled to start the opener for Los Angeles.

The rain delay Sunday lasted one hour and three minutes, which meant even August got one final opportunity to make the Dodgers wait before leaving town.

But eventually the clouds broke, the Dodgers won the game, swept the Tigers and boarded the flight home.

The calendar is turning.

August is gone.

Nobody needs to read that book again.

September, on the other hand, is a completely different story.

And the Dodgers are back home Tuesday to start writing it.