After a somewhat disappointing homestand with a series loss, the Los Angeles Dodgers were back on the road for another interleague matchup against the Minnesota Twins.
This marks the Dodgers’ fourth consecutive series against an American League club after battles with the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, and Baltimore Orioles, and they have another coming up at the end of June against the Athletics.
But before the game began, the Dodgers presented Anthony Banda with his 2025 World Series championship ring, along with the gold-trimmed jersey and hat.
Dodgers 2, Twins 1: key takeaways
Eric Lauer stars after opener
Eric Lauer has had his fair share of struggles in the first inning, so the Dodgers decided to use Will Klein as the opener with the hopes of limiting damage from the Twins’ right-handed bats.
Unfortunately, Klein allowed a solo homer to Byron Buxton as their plan didn’t work out entirely as hoped.
But once Lauer was in the game, he was excellent. The left-hander spun six no-hit innings without allowing a run. He struck out two and walked three hitters.
Between Klein and Lauer, the Dodgers were able to get seven innings of one-run ball out of their first two pitchers. That took the Dodgers into the bottom of the eighth before he exited the game.
Kyle Hurt worked a scoreless eighth with some help from the defense, and Tanner Scott earned the save.
Dodgers suffer pair of injuries
The major story from the game was the Dodgers losing both Kyle Tucker and Dalton Rushing to injuries within the first few innings.
Tucker was the first to exit, which happened in the second inning. Alex Call entered to pinch-run after Tucker was seen on the bases hunched over at second base, and then went into a crouch before jogging off.
The Dodgers announced Tucker left the game due to lower back spasms. Tucker was then seen speaking with Dodgers hitting coaches Robert Van Scoyoc and Aaron Bates, not a trainer, in the dugout.
Rushing exited the game in the bottom of the third inning, and Chuckie Robinson replaced him.
Rushing took a foul ball off his face mask in the first inning, but remained in the game after that point. He popped up in his only at-bat, and then came out of the game.
The Dodgers announced Rushing exited to be evaluated for a concussion.
Dodgers offense powered by homers
The Dodgers only scored two runs in the game, and both came via a solo home run. The first was a leadoff blast off the bat of Shohei Ohtani to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
Ohtani has now homered in two of his three games since returning to the lineup after leaving the team for the birth of his second child.
The second came from Freddie Freeman in the sixth inning, which broke the 1-1 tie and gave the Dodgers the lead.
Even with the win, the Dodgers’ offense was not at its best, going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine runners on base. The injury to Rushing also proved huge in this one, as Robinson came up with two runners on and two outs twice, but struck out both times.
50 wins
With their victory, the Dodgers became the first team to 50 wins this season.
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