Teoscar Hernández pumped his fist. Ben Rortvedt let out a scream. Mookie Betts put some oomph on the end of the Dodgers’ arm-waving, hip-shaking, hit celebration.

After struggling for so long in high-leverage situations, the team’s offense finally had reason to celebrate.

For weeks now, the Dodgers have technically been in a tight division race.

The real battle, however, has often been with themselves.

At a time of the year typically dedicated to scoreboard watching and monitoring the standings, the team had instead been preoccupied by its own inconsistent play. Chief among their recent problems: Capitalizing on scoring opportunities.

In a 13-7 defeat of the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, they finally vanquished those demons.

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After trailing by three runs early, and reaching rock bottom again after coming up empty with the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning, the Dodgers mounted the kind of rally that had so often been missing during their lackluster second half of the season, scoring six runs in the top of the fifth inning to key what felt like a statement win.

“A lot of guys put together really good at-bats,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We found a way to keep the ball moving forward, keep moving to the next guy. It was really impressive.”

Early in Saturday’s game, the Dodgers (83-65) had honed a sound approach. They stressed Giants ace Logan Webb. They stayed alive in two-strike counts. They worked long at-bats and put runners on base.

The missing ingredient, as usual, had been the big hits needed to build a big inning. Then, in the top of the fifth, it all so suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped.

That’s what happened in the second, when Webb wiggled out of trouble by getting Miguel Rojas to hit an infield pop-up and Rortvedt to roll into a double-play, preserving the 4-1 lead the Giants had taken against Clayton Kershaw in a 36-pitch first inning.

“It’s real easy, if you don’t get any runs in that inning, to sit there and start pouting and start letting the emotion take over,” Muncy said. “It’s tough to dig out of that hole."

This time, however, the Dodgers came back from the dead.

The turnaround started in the third, when Shohei Ohtani bat-flipped a leadoff home run that traveled 454 feet (the longest of his 49 long balls this season) and Hernández belted an RBI double off the wall with two outs.

That momentum carried into the fifth, when the Dodgers’ recently unproductive offense suddenly — and refreshingly — flipped the bases-loaded script.

After a walk from Betts, a single from Freddie Freeman and a walk from Muncy chased Webb from the game, Hernández came to the plate against Giants reliever José Buttó.

Hernández quickly fell behind to newly inserted Giants reliever José Buttó, taking a first-pitch fastball before fanning on a slider out of the zone. But after laying off another slider in the dirt, Hernández got a mistake, with Buttó leaving a fastball up and over the plate. Hernández lined it to the gap, where center fielder Luis Matos struggled to get a bead. It dropped in under Matos’ diving attempt, rolling past him for a two-run double that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.

“Getting closer to October, everybody is trying to do the little things, not trying to do too much and just getting on base for the next guy,” said Hernández, who was one of three Dodgers hitters to record three hits and lead the way with three RBIs.

"That was a big difference today. Everybody was into the game. It didn't happen in the second inning, but we came back and started fighting again, every at-bat and scored some runs."

Indeed, from that point on, the floodgates burst open. Michael Conforto lifted a sacrifice fly to right. Rortvedt lined another two-run double to left-center. Betts bounced a run-scoring single up the middle.

By the time the side was retired, 11 Dodgers had come to the plate. Eight had reached safely. Six had come around to score.

An exorcism, exhale and sigh of relief for the Dodgers’ long-scuffling offense.

“That was awesome,” said Kershaw, who exited after the third. “For them to grind out at-bats — especially after me putting them in a hole after the first inning — getting guys on base, not trying to do too much, taking what they’re giving you, walks, hits, all the things, it was really impressive.”

Over their 26-33 stretch since July 4, the Dodgers had lost so many games like this one, letting bad outings from starters or wasted opportunities early in games send them into spirals that lingered for days (and sometimes weeks) after.

But on this night, every moment of adversity was met with an answer.

After Kirby Yates gave back three runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers responded with another three-spot in the sixth punctuated by an RBI double from Rojas. When the bullpen needed someone to calm the waters, rookie left-hander Justin Wrobleski produced 2⅓ scoreless innings.

Even on a day that Will Smith was placed on the injured list (finally being shelved after battling a bone bruise on his hand for the last 10 days) and Muncy left the game after taking a pitch to the head (he passed postgame concussion protocols, and will have a scheduled day off Sunday), the Dodgers didn’t wilt.

Instead, their lineup finally produced as expected, going seven for 15 with runners in scoring position, producing 11 of their 23 combined hits and walks with two strikes, and fueling a win that keeps the team 2½ games up in the National League West standings — all while helping ease concerns about their recently inconsistent offense.

“I just don't see why we can't do that, as far as approach, on a nightly basis,” manager Dave Roberts said. “With two strikes, you got to give something up. And I think for me tonight, I saw us give up the pull side. And then you're starting to get hits to the big part of the field, hits the other way to the other gap, winning pitches. We did that all night long. Good stuff."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

If ever there were a day that told you it’s just not happening for the Mets this season, it was Saturday at Citi Field. 

It wasn’t only that they blew a 2-0 lead after seven innings to lose 3-2 to the Texas Rangers. There have been plenty of bad losses lately, and indeed their losing streak is now eight and counting, leaving them three games over .500 with the third wild-card spot slipping away from them.

No, this was more about the way they lost, making so many dumb or inexplicable mistakes that manager Carlos Mendoza couldn’t deny the obvious.

“Fundamentally, we’re not playing good baseball,” he said at his postgame news conference.

They’re back to failing badly in the clutch as well, going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Maybe that was inevitable after their hot August with the bats, but it’s crunch time now and nobody’s getting it done. 

Worse, in some ways, were the glaring mistakes.

There was Brett Baty getting picked off second base with no outs in the sixth inning, the second time this week he’s been picked off a base in a close game. It just can’t happen.

There was Francisco Alvarez getting called for catcher’s interference to allow Josh Smith to reach base leading off the eighth inning -- a crucial blunder that led to the Rangers’ first run.

Mendoza seemed especially upset about that one, noting that with Tyler Rogers pitching, hitters are going to let the ball get deep, not fearing the velocity. 

“We don’t have the awareness there,” he said, speaking of Alvarez, “and it cost us.”

Then, with the game tied 2-2, there was Francisco Lindor’s failure to catch Cody Freeman's relatively routine line drive that started the Rangers’ winning rally. Lindor had to jump, which was why the play was ruled a hit, but even Lindor afterward said, “I should have caught it, 100 percent.”

Finally, there was Edwin Diaz making costly mistake pitches, a hanging slider to Rowdy Tellez in the eighth that was roped for a game-tying double, and a fastball in the middle of the plate that Wyatt Langford lined to right-center for what turned out to be the game-winning hit. 

Add it all up and this was one of the most deflating losses of all, even in this sea of deflating losses. 

It had been such a feel-good day at Citi Field, too, with a big crowd seeming to thoroughly enjoy the Alumni Classic, and then young Brandon Sproat adding to the festivities by throwing a gem in his second major league start, going six shutout innings on only 70 pitches. 

It’s a great sign for the future, but it only made Saturday’s loss feel like another lost opportunity. 

Sproat surely could have gone another inning, but Mendoza took him out, saying that his velocity dropped significantly in the sixth inning, as he gave up a few hard-hit balls. However, Sproat only threw two fastballs in the inning, a four-seamer and a sinker, both at 93 mph, and otherwise relied on his off-speed stuff. 

By comparison, Sproat had thrown a 93 mph sinker as early as the fourth inning, though his four-seamer was as high as 97 mph earlier in the game. 

In any case, Sproat said he had no issues with his arm, and didn’t really have an answer for any drop in velocity, saying “I just go out there and compete.”

Bottom line, you can’t blame Mendoza for being cautious with a 24-year-old who seems to have a big future with the Mets, and as it turned out, the bullpen was okay on this day. Brooks Raley worked a clean inning and Rogers’ inning was compromised by the catcher’s interference. 

In the end, the Mets got the ball to Diaz with a lead, but his was the rare day when he didn’t have it. 

The timing couldn’t have been worse, obviously, and still another head-shaking loss left the Mets’ players continuing to say they believe they’ll turn this thing around, even as their words sound more hollow by the day.

On this day, Juan Soto, whose eighth-inning home run gave the Mets a 2-0 lead and made him the first 40/30 man in team history, was particularly emphatic in saying the ball simply isn’t bouncing the Mets’ way at the moment.

“It’s crazy how the games have been going,’’ he said. “But we’ve gotta keep grinding. I still 100 percent believe this is a playoff team. We’re going to turn this thing around. Just look around at the talent. We have everything we need to go all the way.”

Soto even downplayed his personal achievement and said, “We’ve got bigger things in front of us. We’ve gotta go out and get it.”

Soto certainly sounded like he believed his words; it’s just tough for anyone who has been watching this team, especially on Saturday, to believe them. 

It’s not as if this is merely some flukey stretch of losing at this point. These Mets are 18 games under .500 since June 13, so even when you factor in the occasional sparks, the seven-game winning streak in late July, or the three-game sweep of the Phillies in late August, the body of work offers little evidence that this team can suddenly go on a tear to lock down the wild card berth, never mind fulfill Soto’s promise of sorts that they can still go “all the way.”

As it is, this late-season collapse is becoming more defining of their season by the day. That reality never felt quite as inevitable as it did on Saturday.

With 13 games left in the regular season, the Mets are playing their worst baseball.

Stuck in an eight-game losing streak after Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Texas Rangers, New York finds itself on the outside looking in of the postseason, 0.5 GB of the San Francisco Giants who are just getting underway against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with no answers to fix it.

Following some duds on the mound lately, the Mets wasted an excellent performance out of Brandon Sproat in his Citi Field debut. The rookie right-hander pitched six scoreless innings and left (after only 70 pitches thrown) with a lead. 

But even after Juan Soto doubled his team's lead with a mammoth solo homer in the seventh, it still wasn't enough as the bullpen, this time Tyler Rogers and Edwin Diaz, allowed the game-tying and game-winning runs in the eighth and ninth innings.

New York had its chances to extend (and in the later innings tie or retake) the lead, but failed to do so as its ugly numbers with runners in scoring position showed up once again. 

The recurring losing seems to be getting to the Mets who were out of answers on why they continue to play so poorly, especially during such an important stretch of the season.

"I don't know. We’re definitely trying to figure out what’s going on," Soto said. "We’re playing our ass off every night it’s just not going in our way. It’s just crazy how the games have been going, but like I said we just gotta keep grinding and keep moving forward. There’s no excuses, we just gotta go out there and keep trying to beat them."

No matter what New York tries to do to get out of this funk, nothing is working.

And although the players say they believe they will win every time they step foot onto the field, it's getting to the point where the nightly expectation is something will go wrong for this team.

"We have the energy, we have the guys, we have everything we need to go all the way," Soto said. "The only thing is we keep losing games. I don’t know what else to do right now."

"It’s not easy right now, especially when you’re not able to finish the job in a game where you felt like you had it and then before you know it you’re behind," said manager Carlos Mendoza.

"Everybody has a sense of urgency but for some reason we haven’t been able to close out games," added Francisco Lindor.

Of course, the Mets are not out of the playoff picture and depending on what happens later tonight they could still be holding the final wild card spot. However, things need to drastically change, and quickly, for New York to have any shot of the playoffs.

Right now, losers of eight straight and a 31-49 record since being a season-high 21 games above .500, the Mets look finished.

"We gotta get going here, fast. That’s the bottom line. We gotta get the job done. Period. It’s been too long," Mendoza said.

While that's the message, it's hard to execute when the team continues to hurt itself on the field. On Saturday, it was Francisco Alvarez's catcher's interference that began the eighth-inning rally and Lindor's missed catch on a line drive that ended up coming around to score the go-ahead run. Brett Baty was also picked off in the sixth inning for the second time this week, deflating a potential rally.

"It’s just about the results now and when you’re going through stretches like this everybody has to do their part. We gotta find a way to get the job done here. Feels like fundamentally we’re not playing good baseball right now."

If New York wants to save its season from complete and utter disaster, it will need to come from everyone looking within, digging deep and simply playing better. The roster is talented enough to go on a run, but it's time the players start acting like it.

"We believe in every single guy here," Soto said. "We’re trying to do our best and trying to come through."

"We have to put it together. We haven’t put it together. Tomorrow is a new day," Diaz said.

"Everyone here is fighting for each other," Lindor said. "Everyone feels like we’re preparing the right way. Hopefully baseball turns on our side and once we grab the momentum hopefully we can maintain it."

"We still got an opportunity. You still gotta believe, right? But you got to get going," added Mendoza.