Will Smith had an encouraging display of power and Freddie Freeman also homered to help lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-2 win over the San Francisco Giants, who played their first game since manager Gabe Kapler was fired.
Like in last week’s series at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers remained successful against their longtime rival. Smith provided L.A. with an early lead by sending a sinker from Keaton Winn out to straightaway center field for a two-run home run.
Lance Lynn immediately allowed the Giants to cut their deficit in half as he labored through a 32-pitch first inning. It began with consecutive walks that set the table for Wilmer Flores to end a 10-pitch at-bat with an RBI single.
To Lynn’s credit, he needed just 38 pitches to get from the second through the fifth innings. That stretch included retiring 15 of 16 batters faced, with the only exception during that span being Flores’ solo home run in the third inning.
Lynn has surrendered 44 home runs this season, which is sixth-most all-time for a single season.
The veteran starter nevertheless minimized the damage to just two runs, and that allowed the Dodgers to ultimately create some separation.
Having already hit his 29th home run of the season, Freeman legged out his 59th double in the sixth inning. Freeman now is on the cusp of becoming the first player in MLB history with 30 home runs and 60 doubles in one season.
The double gave Freeman 90 extra-base hits this season, good for most in L.A. Dodgers franchise history. The all-time Dodgers record is Gabe Herman’s 94 extra-base hits in 1930. The L.A. record previously was 84, shared by Shawn Green (2000) and Cody Bellinger (2019).
After Smith was hit by a pitch to put two on, J.D. Martinez pulled a three-run homer into the stands. Martinez surpassed 1,000 career RBI and put the offense as a whole into elite company.
The Dodgers have now scored 900 runs in a season for the first time since moving to Los Angeles and just their sixth overall instance. Prior to this year’s group, the last Dodgers team to score 900 runs in a season was Brooklyn in 1953.
Of those, 131 have been scored by Freeman. That broke Maury Wills’ L.A. Dodgers franchise record of 130 runs scored from his 1962 National League MVP season.
In one of the only negatives on the night for the Dodgers, Miguel Rojas was hit by a pitch and removed from the game due to a left hand contusion.
Dodgers approaching 100 wins
The Dodgers need to take one more game against the Giants this weekend to reach 100 wins in a fourth consecutive full season.
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