The Los Angeles Dodgers hit four home runs and Yoshinobu Yamamoto turned in another stellar outing to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-0, and clinch the National League West division title in the process.
Freddie Freeman started the scoring with a solo homer in the second inning to put them up 1-0. Andy Pages then made it back-to-back with a solo shot of his own.
The Dodgers then built a rally as Michael Conforto walked, Kiké Hernández singled and Dalton Rushing reached on an error to load the bases. Mookie Betts then singled home two more runs to double the Dodgers’ lead to 4-0.
After a double from Hernández in the fourth inning, Shohei Ohtani blasted his 54th homer of the season, putting the Dodgers up 6-0. That tied Ohtani’s franchise record for home runs by a Dodgers’ player in a single season, which he set last year, and he now has three games remaining to break his own record.
The Dodgers continued to add on in the fourth when Teoscar Hernández singled and scored on Freeman’s second homer of the game, making it 8-0. That was his 23rd homer of the year and 22nd multi-homer game of his career.
That offensive outburst proved to be more than enough as Yamamoto once again proved his status as one of MLB’s best pitchers. Yamamoto pitched six scoreless innings while allowing just four hits and adding seven strikeouts against two walks.
The D-Backs threatened against Yamamoto in the third inning when they put two runners on with one out, but the right-hander forced a fly out and ground out to end the inning.
They again put a rally together in the fourth inning with a two-out walk, followed by a single and passed ball to put two runners in scoring position, but Yamamoto ended the inning with a strikeout.
Yamamoto also reached 200 strikeouts in a season for the first time in his career with the outing.
Tanner Scott worked a perfect seventh with a strikeout, Will Klein tossed a scoreless eighth with two strikeouts, and Anthony Banda finished the game with a perfect inning with two strikeouts.
Dodgers clinch NL West title
The Dodgers clinched their 12th NL West title in the last 13 seasons, and they have made the postseason each year in that timeframe. Their streak of 13 consecutive playoff appearances is tied with the 1995-2007 New York Yankees for the second-longest postseason streak in MLB history, and trails only the 1991-2005 Atlanta Braves, who had 14 straight playoff appearances.
The Dodgers also reached the 90 win mark for the 12th consecutive full season. The last time the Dodgers did not reach a minimum of 90 wins in a full MLB schedule was 2012, when they won just 86 games.
The only year the Dodgers didn’t reach 90 wins during their current streak came in the COVID-shortened 2020 season when they went 43-17. That amounted to a franchise-best .716 winning percentage that translated to a 116-win pace for a full season.
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