The Los Angeles Dodgers continued their strong Cactus League play with a 4-2 win over the Oakland Athletics that was built on home runs from James Outman and Max Muncy.
Outman’s first homer of the spring gave the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead and was notable in that it came against left-hander Kyle Muller. Although Outman had a better batting average and on-base percentage against southpaws compared to righties last season, he had just one home run in 154 plate appearances when seeing same-side pitching.
Then in the fourth inning, Muncy’s two-run homer extended the Dodgers’ lead to 3-0. Muncy’s home run also was off a left-hander, which he had just 11 of last season.
Travis Swaggerty further padded L.A.’s lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.
The Dodgers didn’t score after that, but their pitching protected the lead. Dodgers prospect Kyle Hurt pitched through some traffic in the first inning to complete a scoreless outing in his 2024 Spring Training debut.
Evan Phillips and Alex Vesia each stranded a baserunner as well but the Dodgers lost their bid for a shutout with Elieser Hernández on the mound in the seventh inning.
Hernández started his appearance with a strikeout before giving up a base hit and RBI double that got the A’s on the board. Oakland scored a second run on a wild pitch before Hernández managed to get through the inning with the Dodgers’ lead cut in half.
Dodgers on deck
Next for the Dodgers is a road matchup with the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields. But more intrigue lies with Tuesday’s game, when Shohei Ohtani is likely to make his Dodgers debut. Yoshinobu Yamamoto then is expected to make his first Cactus League start on Wednesday.
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