There was some déjà vu at Dodger Stadium as home runs from Will Smith and Miguel Vargas once again powered the Los Angeles Dodgers to a win over the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3, capturing the series victory.
Smith gave the Dodgers the lead in the first inning following a leadoff walk to Shohei Ohtan when he blasted a home run, just one day after hitting three against the Brewers, to put the Dodgers up 2-1.
With that, Smith became the first Dodgers player to homer in four consecutive at-bats since Adrián González (4/7-4/8/2015) and the first MLB since Jose Altuve (9/4-9/5/2023) to accomplish the feat.
In addition, he became the third Dodgers catcher to homer four times in a two day span, joining Mike Piazza and Roy Campanella.
The Dodgers added on to their lead in the first inning when Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández hit back-to-back singles to set the stage for Andy Pages, who grounded into a run-scoring force out.
The Dodgers held the lead in the eighth and went to Evan Phillips to face the top of the Brewers’ lineup, however, Christian Yelich beat him for a home run that tied the game.
With the game tied in the bottom half of the inning, Miguel Vargas pinch-hit for Gavin Lux and launched a pinch-hit homer to left field. It was his first career pinch-hit homer.
Ohtani followed with a long ball of his own, giving him 199 for his career and his NL-leading 28th home run.
James Paxton made the start looking to get back on track after a disastrous outing his last time out when he gave up nine runs over four innings with 12 hits allowed.
From the get go, things weren’t looking good. A one-out walk and a single from Willy Adames put the Brewers up 1-0, but he was able to limit the damage to that.
Paxton also allowed a solo home run to Rhys Hoskins in the fourth inning that made it a one-run game.
But overall, the Big Maple turned in a strong outing. He pitched five innings, allowing two runs on four hits with three strikeouts and two walks.
Daniel Hudson, Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia all worked scoreless innings out of the bullpen, with Vesia earning the save.
Shohei Ohtani breaks out of slump for Dodgers
Ohtani has been striking out in nearly half of his plate appearances as of late, which Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said was due to the slugger chasing low pitches out of the zone.
Roberts remained confident in Ohtani and trusted him to break out of the slump.
“I think it’s easy because he’s had stretches of a couple, 2-3-4, games where he does that, and then he resets, gets back into his zone,” Roberts said.
Ohtani reached in all of his plate appearances on Saturday, going 2-for-2 with a triple, homer, hit-by-pitch and two walks.
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