The Los Angeles Dodgers began their road trip without Shohei Ohtani, who is on the paternity list, but Tommy Edman provided power from the leadoff spot and Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Jacob deGrom in a 3-0 win over the Texas Rangers.
Edman gave the Dodgers an early lead by opening the game with his seventh home run of the season. That broke a tie with Ohtani for most on the Dodgers and gave Edman the National League lead.
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That didn’t hold for long, as the Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber hit his seventh homer of the year shortly after.
deGrom held the Dodgers’ bats in check after Edman’s home run to get through seven innings with just the one run allowed. The outing was deGrom’s longest since he also completed seven frames against the Kansas City Royals on April 11, 2023.
Max Muncy and Edman combined for the Dodgers’ only three hits off deGrom. Edman singled to lead off the sixth inning but he was thrown out trying to steal second base.
That kept the pressure on Yamamoto, who was coming off an outing in which he threw at least 100 pitches for only the second time in his career.
Yamamoto dazzled throughout the night as he bested deGrom with a carer-high-tying 10 strikeouts over seven shutout innings. Three of the five hits Yamamoto allowed were with two outs.
Yamamoto has now recorded at least nine strikeouts in three of his five starts this season. Friday’s outing also tied Yamamoto’s longest start without allowing a run — matching his seven shutout innings against the New York Yankees on June 7, 2024.
Dodgers bullpen backs Yamamoto
Teoscar Hernández gave the Dodgers some insurance with an RBI single in the ninth inning and Will Smith added a sacrifice fly.
Kirby Yates struck out two in a perfect eighth inning against his former team, and Tanner Scott entered in the ninth to convert his seventh save of the season.
Scott needed to pitch through some traffic and was aided by Muncy making a pair of diving stops at third base. The second of which started a game-ending double play with the tying run at the plate.
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