The Los Angeles Dodgers were without a hit through four innings of Monday’s game with the Cleveland Indians, but that quickly became an afterthought as Yasmani Grandal and Matt Kemp jumpstarted the offense.
Mike Clevinger had six strikeouts and no-hit the Dodgers through his three innings of work. He retired eight consecutive batters before walking Trayce Thompson with two outs in the bottom of the third. Thompson was stranded as Chase Utley flied out.
Andrew Miller entered in the fourth inning and struck out Corey Seager and Justin Turner, and got Matt Kemp to a ground out after walking Cody Bellinger.
Cody Allen then took over for Miller in the fifth, when Grandal broke up the combined no-hitter with a leadoff home run. The homer was Grandal’s second in as many games, and gave him one on each side of the plate.
Kemp’s go-ahead home run off Ryan Merritt opened the floodgates. After Grandal reached on an error, Joc Pederson, Kiké Hernandez and Jake Peter each hit an RBI double before Merritt could get out of the inning.
On the spring, Peter is now batting .412/.389/1.118 with a remarkable 12 RBI in 17 at-bats across nine Cactus League games. Entering Tuesday, Peter has an extra-base hit in his past four games.
The Dodgers then blew the game open in the eighth inning, behind home runs by outfield prospects Alex Verdugo and DJ Peters.
On the mound, Rich Hill had four strikeouts and allowed just one run in three innings. He retired the final seven batters faced. Adam Liberatore and Ross Stripling were also stellar, combining for three hitless innings in the 8-1 win.
