The Los Angeles Dodgers started their final series of the regular season with a 6-2 win over the San Francisco Giants, led by home runs from Will Smith, Freddie Freeman and J.D. Martinez.
Freeman’s first of three hits on the night helped set the table for Smith as he followed with a two-run homer that gave the Dodgers a lead before Lance Lynn threw a single pitch. The home run was only Smith’s second during the month of September and an encouraging development considering his prolonged slump.
The Giants scored a run in the bottom of the first inning to cut the Dodgers’ lead in half, but it was extended in the third when Freeman hit a homer that carried over Triples Alley at Oracle Park.
Freeman later doubled in the sixth inning and after Smith was hit by a pitch, Martinez provided a cushion with a three-run home run. Martinez was on the heels of giving the Dodgers four players with at least 100 RBI in the same season for the first time in franchise history, and the homer put him over 1,000 in his career.
Hello, Will Smith! pic.twitter.com/NtmZYvJAQR
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 30, 2023
Freddie makes it look so easy.
pic.twitter.com/lYUCNxRX0D
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 30, 2023
J.D. homer? Winning. pic.twitter.com/mlVcnfnirf
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 30, 2023
For Freeman, he’s on the verge of becoming the first player in MLB history with 60 doubles and 30 home runs in one season. He needs one of each over the Dodgers’ final two games to put himself in the record books.
Freeman already did so with his 90 extra-base hits this season, good for most in L.A. Dodgers franchise history. The all-time Dodgers record is Gabe Herman’s 94 extra-base hits in 1930. The previous L.A. record previously was 84, shared by Shawn Green (2000) and Cody Bellinger (2019).
Dodgers score 900 runs
The Dodgers have scored 900 runs in a season for the first time since moving to Los Angeles and just their sixth overall instance.
Of those, 131 have been scored by Freeman. That broke Maury Wills’ L.A. Dodgers franchise record of 130 runs scored from his 1962 National League MVP season.
Prior to this year, the last Dodgers team to score 900 runs in one season was Brooklyn in 1953.
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