The Los Angeles Dodgers picked themselves up from a gut-wrenching loss, led by Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts combining for xx home runs, and a season high in strikeouts by Clayton Kershaw during a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
The Dodgers avoided being swept with their win on Sunday and snapped a five-game losing streak. They also ended an Orioles winning streak that had reached five games.
Ohtani provided the Dodgers with an immediate lead by hitting his 12th leadoff home run of the season. That tied him with Betts for the Dodgers’ franchise record of most leadoff homers in a single season.
Ohtani then crushed his second home run of the day in the third inning, and Betts followed with the back-to-back blasts extending the Dodgers’ lead to 3-0. They added onto that in the fourth inning when the Orioles’ attempt to backpick Miguel Rojas at third base resulted in an errant throw going into left field.
That came two batters after Orioles starter Tomoyuki Sugano was knocked out of the game with an apparent right foot injury. Sugano suffered the injury when he stuck his foot out at a Hyeseong Kim comebacker. All four runs were charged to Sugano.
The Dodgers didn’t find any success against the Orioles’ bullpen until late, but Kershaw and a rotation of relief pitchers managed to preserve enough of the lead.
Kershaw ultimately was charged for two runs over 5.2 innings and finished with a season-high eight strikeouts. The start was Kershaw’s first of his career against the Orioles and also his debut at Camden Yards.
He held the Orioles without a hit until Emmanuel Rivera’s single with two outs in the fourth. Kershaw was nearly through six shutout innings but gave up a base hit to Gunnar Henderson and that was followed by an RBI double from Rivera.
That brought on Edgardo Henriquez, who also allowed an RBI double — with the run charged to Kershaw — before getting through the inning.
Justin Wrobleski stranded runners at the corners in the seventh and struck out the side in the eighth inning. His appearance ended with striking out the final five batters faced.
Jack Dreyer entered in the ninth and converted his third save of the season.
Dodgers road trip recap
The Dodgers went just 1-5 on their road trip but with their win on Sunday guaranteed they would remain in sole possession of first place in the National League West.
Next is a short homestand consisting of only a series against the Colorado Rockies.
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