Yamamoto, Home Runs Were Too Much for Angels as Dodgers Roll 9-2

Did you really think that the Los Angeles Dodgers were going to sleepwalk like Ed Norton when they played the Los Angeles Angels? That definitely didn’t happen on a Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a stellar outing and Shohei Ohtani was among Los Angeles batters to hit homers as the Dodgers rolled past the reeling Angels 9-2. Yamamoto went eight innings, giving up two hits, one earned run, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out four.

He now has a 2.68 ERA. Jack Dreyer worked the ninth inning and gave up a solo home run to the Angels’ Zach Neto. The Angels were punchless against Yamamoto as he simply had hitters off-stride all night long.

Kochanowicz Bombed Out for Angels

Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz was awful, working only one-third of an inning. He gave up six hits, seven runs (six earned), walked one, struck out one, and gave up a home run. He now has a 6.05 ERA and falls to 2-5 this season.

Reliever Brent Suter came on for Kochanowicz, worked 2.2 innings, gave up two hits, two earned runs, didn’t walk a batter, struck out two, and gave up a home run himself. After Suter left the game, the other Angels’ relievers kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard.

By that time, though, the damage already had been done.

The Angels actually jumped out first with an Oswald Peraza triple scored Wade Meckler, giving them a 1-0 lead.

It lasted about as fast as a Los Angeles driving rolling down Interstate 5.

Andy Pages hit his 14th home run, bringing in Shohei Ohtani and putting the Dodgers up 2-1. We’re not done yet with the first-inning scoring. Ryan Ward doubled to Angels center fielder Mike Trout, and Freddie Freeman (Friday night’s hero) and Mookie Betts scored. That made it 4-1 Dodgers.

Dodgers’ Bats Were Smoking

With one out, Dalton Rushing walked. Alex Freeland reached base on a fielding error by Angels second baseman Zach Neto. On that very play, Max Muncy, Ward, and Rushing scored as the Dodgers upped their lead to 7-1.

Ohtani got a second at-bat in the first inning. He made it count as he slammed a two-run home run, his 11th homer this season, and the Dodgers were up 9-1. That held up all night long. Neto’s ninth-inning home run was the last run that the Angels scored.

It might be a stretch to say this, but the Angels are not playing good baseball right now. The Angels only had three hits in the game, and were 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position. The Dodgers, though, were 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left six total runners on base.

With Saturday night’s win in their back pocket, the Dodgers can go for the sweep of the Freeway Series on Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

If the Angels show up and play like they did on Saturday night, then the Dodgers should have no problem bringing out the brooms.

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