First, the Dodgers made history. Then, they had to make sure it didn’t go to waste.
Despite home runs from Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman to lead off Saturday night — the first time in Dodgers’ history they went deep in their first three at-bats of a game — the team had to grind out an 8-6 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, taking the first two games of this weekend’s pivotal divisional series to go six games up in National League West.
On a night the Dodgers had an incredibly thin bullpen, and needed as much run support as possible for starting pitcher Gavin Stone, the early offense was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Ohtani hit his 44th of the season to straightaway center field, continuing his pursuit of the first 50 homer-50 steal season in MLB history.
Betts followed two pitches later with a blast to left, his 14th of the year and fourth since returning from a broken hand earlier this month.
Freeman completed the historic trifecta with a line drive to right, turning on a first-pitch fastball for a feat never before completed in the club’s 141-year history.
But, in a contest that rivaled the wackiness of Friday night’s 10-9 series opener, the long balls quickly became a relative footnote in what turned into a back-and-forth affair.
The Diamondbacks scored four times in the bottom of the first — including on a leadoff, inside-the-park home run from Corbin Carroll — to briefly take a one-run lead. The Dodgers responded with two in the second, only to watch Arizona tie it again in the third. Another one-run Dodgers’ lead was erased in the seventh.
Dodgers starting pitcher Gavin Stone delivers against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the second inning Saturday.
(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)
Only in the ninth did they finally go in front for good.
After singles from Will Smith and Gavin Lux, and a sacrifice bunt from Kiké Hernández, Tommy Edman feathered a single into right to drive in two go-ahead runs.
That allowed Evan Phillips — the last reliever available in the Dodgers bullpen, which took down four more innings Saturday after Stone’s five-inning, five-run start — to enter for a save in the bottom of the ninth.
