The Los Angeles Dodgers completed a sweep of the Los Angeles Angels and increased their winning streak to five games. Last season, the Angels swept the Dodgers in the season series, so they’ve now got some revenge and set themselves up to go for the season sweep when they meet again in early June at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers now look to continue their winning streak as they head south on Monday for a matchup with the San Diego Padres.
Dodgers 10, Angels 1: key takeaways
Roki Sasaki excellent
Roki Sasaki was excellent and turned in the best start of his career. Everything seemed to click for the right-hander as he set career highs in innings pitched and strikeouts, while also walking no one in his start for the first time.
Sasaki pitched seven innings of one-run ball while allowing just four hits and striking out eight. It was the first time in his MLB career that Sasaki recorded an out in the seventh inning.
The only run he allowed came in the fourth inning after allowing a pair of singles, with a wild pitch sandwiched in between them. But he limited the damage and didn’t let things spiral out of control, unlike in the past.
Most impressive is that Sasaki threw 91 pitches, and 69 of them were strikes, meaning he only threw 22 balls in the game. For a pitcher who has often struggled with command, that was impressive to see.
Sasaki now owns a 5.09 ERA this season across 40.2 innings, but is on the right path toward more sustainable success. The 24-year-old also took a big step forward in his previous outing, despite the stats not fully reflecting that.
The game was finished off by Alex Vesia and Chayce McDermott, who was just called up before the game.
Dodgers offense continues hot hitting
The Dodgers appear to be over all their offensive issues as they’ve scored at least five runs in their last four games now, including an outburst of 15 and seven against the Angels.
The Dodgers struck first after loading the bases in the second inning, thanks to a pair of walks. Miguel Rojas put them up 1-0 with a sacrifice fly, and Hyeseong Kim followed with an RBI single.
They loaded the bases again in the fourth inning before Shohei Ohtani singled in two runs to double their lead to 4-0. Andy Pages followed by singling in another two runs.
Kyle Tucker capped off the inning with another single to drive in their seventh run of the game.
It wasn’t until the ninth inning that the Dodgers scored again, starting with a two-run double from Tucker. An RBI single from Hernández followed that to give the Dodgers their 10th run.
The Dodgers have now scored double-digit runs in back-to-back games.
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
