Dodgers hit 3 homers, Maeda shines in 8-1 rout of Brewers

MILWAUKEE — Well, they certainly put on a brave front.

On the day they leaed they would be without ace and MVP candidate Clayton Kershaw for an unknown period of time, the Dodgers pounded the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-1, Thursday afteoon at Miller Park.

The win ended a 3-4 trip and sent the Dodgers home to lick their wounds and face a future without Kershaw.

“Obviously that’s a big blow,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “To lose Clayton for any length of time is a big blow. But I think our guys made a point that we’re going to move forward. We’re going to go out there and keep wiing games. We did that today. That’s our goal tomorrow.”

They will try to do that with freshly acquired Bud Norris starting in place of Kershaw — a massive dropoff by almost any measure. The Dodgers now have a much better starting rotation on the DL (Kershaw, Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Alex Wood, Brett Anderson and Frankie Montas) than they will have on the mound (Norris, Scott Kazmir and rookies Kenta Maeda, Julio Urias and Brock Stewart).

“It’ll be a team thing. Not any one person can take on everything he did for this team,” Dodgers rookie shortstop Corey Seager said. “We’ll spread the wealth. We’re just going to have to share the load.”

“It’s tough. He’s obviously a huge part of our team,” Dodgers outfielder Trayce Thompson said. “But the window is open for us to step up and for some pitchers to step up.”

It was the hitters who stepped up Thursday. The Dodgers had 14 hits, six for extra bases. Seager, Thompson and Yasmani Grandal each had home runs, accounting for five of their runs. Thompson’s two-run home run was one of his three hits in the game.

Seager’s two-run home run was one of his two hits, extending his career-high hitting streak to 13 games. That is tied with Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado for the longest active streak in the majors. During the streak, Seager is 22 for 53 (.415) with eight doubles, one triple and two home runs.

At the midway point of the Dodgers’ schedule, Seager has 17 home runs and 20 doubles and leads the Dodgers in hits, homers, doubles and runs scored.

“Obviously I have a biased perspective, but I think he’s clearly the best shortstop in the National League,” Roberts said of Seager, who was ruing third in the All-Star voting at that position behind Chicago’s Addison Russell and Colorado’s Trevor Story.

Brewers starter Zach Davies held the Dodgers to one run in seven iings at Dodger Stadium two weeks ago. This time, he was gone in the fifth iing.

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“Good at-bats,” Roberts said of the difference. “It was good to see the guys come together with a gameplan. They made Davies get the ball up. He likes to get the ball on the ground.”

Adrian Gonzalez had a single and a double, emerging from his slump-induced two-day sabbatical to reach base eight times in the three games at Miller Park. Yasiel Puig was on base three times Thursday with a walk, RBI single and double. Since retuing from the DL, Puig is 11 for 31 with four multi-hit games in nine games.

As welcome as the offense was, though, more heartening for the Dodgers’ Kershaw-less future was the solid start by Maeda.

Maeda gave up a run in the first iing, had the bases loaded at one point and threw 27 pitches to get through the iing. But he allowed no more runs and only two more hits in six iings, striking out six Brewers to win for the fourth time in six decisions.

That completed a lucrative road trip for Maeda, who cashed in contract bonuses in Pittsburgh (his 15th start of the season) and Milwaukee (passing 90 iings pitched) worth a combined $1.25 million on top of his $3 million salary.

“It seems like he always comes through no matter what happens,” Grandal said of Maeda. “You think back to the Mets game — he got hit in the hand but still gets through six iings. Against Milwaukee at home, he threw a lot of pitches in the first couple iings but pitched into the seventh.

“It doesn’t seem to matter whether he’s getting a lot of strikeouts or whatever, he gives us a strong outing.”