In a game started by two of the best pitchers on each club in Gavin Stone and Merrill Kelly, it was the offense that took center stage as the Los Angeles Dodgers pulled away with a 8-6 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Shohei Ohtani led off the game with his 44th home run of the season as he makes his chase toward the first 50-50 season in MLB history. That was followed by Mookie Betts’ 14th homer of the year, giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.
But that wasn’t all for them as Freddie Freeman also blasted a home run, his 19th of the year, giving the Dodgers back-to-back-to-back homers.
It was the first time in franchise history the Dodgers have started a game with three consecutive homers, and it was the 16th time in franchise history that they’ve hit three straight homers in any inning.
The last time the Dodgers went back-to-back-back was April 13, 2022 against the Minnesota Twins in the 8th inning when Cody Bellinger, Gavin Lux and Austin Barnes all homered.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, their hot start quickly cooled off. Corbin Carroll started off the Diamondbacks with a leadoff, inside the park home run.
That marked the first time both teams hit leadoff homers in the same game since the Dodgers faced the Miami Marlins on Aug. 18, 2023 when Betts and Jorge Soler both started with a home run.
Singles from Jake McCarthy and Joc Pederson ended up putting the tying runs on base, and both came around to score on a double from Lourdes Gurriel Jr., giving both teams a three-run first inning before they recorded their first out of the game.
But the Diamondbacks also added on to take the lead on a sacrifice fly from Eugenio Suarez.
The Dodgers tied the game in the second inning when Ohtani hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to drive in Max Muncy, and they re-took the lead on an RBI single from Freeman that brought Miguel Rojas home.
A home run from Gurriel in the third inning once again tied the game at 5-5, but Stone started to settle in from there as he retired the next eight hitters he faced before coming out of the game.
Stone finished his day going five innings, giving up five runs on five hits with four strikeouts to one walk. His day would have looked better if not for a fielding mistake by Teoscar Hernández in the first inning, but it wasn’t ruled an error.
After the scoring calmed down for a few innings, the Dodgers re-took the lead with an RBI single from Max Muncy, which followed a two-out double from Gavin Lux.
That lead didn’t last either as the Diamondbacks tied it in the bottom of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Carroll, which followed a walk, bunt and wild pitch that put the runner at third.
The Dodgers put two runners on in the ninth inning, and with two outs, Tommy Edman singled home both of them with two outs to provide the Dodgers with the game-winning hit.
Evan Phillips recorded the save and Ben Casparius, who made his MLB debut with a perfect inning, picked up the win.
Dodgers clinch 14th consecutive winning season
With the win, the Dodgers picked up their MLB-leading 82nd win of the season that guarantees they will finish the season with a record of at least 82-80.
That marks the 14th consecutive season the Dodgers have had a winning season, which has set their new franchise record. It was previously held by the 1945-1967 Brooklyn Dodgers with 13 straight winning seasons.
The previous L.A. Dodgers record was 10 consecutive seasons from 1969-1978.
The last time the Dodgers had a losing season was in 2010 when they went 80-82, prior to that, it was the 2005 season when they went 71-91.
Over their winning stretch of 14 consecutive seasons, the Dodgers have went 1,281-859, a winning percentage of 59.9%.
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