The home run drought is over, and it only took facing one of the shakiest pitching staffs in baseball for it to happen, as the Dodgers thoroughly outhit Houston in an 8-3 win. It was a win with the particularly sweet taste of seeing Kyle Tucker leave the yard in his old stomping grounds, hitting one out to right field, a place he patrolled for so many years.
Although Tucker had his home run, the first of them—the one that broke the streak—came from an unlikely source. It was Alex Freeland who left the park in the second inning, then tying the game at 2-2 after an eventful first inning in which the offense failed to capitalize on a pop fly from Tucker that dropped for an RBI single, ultimately seeing Andy Pages strand the bases loaded against Ryan Weiss. Set to be the bulk man after Steven Okert dealt with the big bad lefties in the Dodgers lineup, Weiss came in already with a big mess in the first—although he got out of it unscathed, the rest of his performance gave the Dodgers the ideal platform for a badly needed slugfest for a team that hadn’t had one of those away from home since they visited the Rockies a couple of weeks ago.
A Shohei Ohtani walk followed Freeland’s home run in the second, and he was driven in on an RBI double from Smith, then giving the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. The big damage, though, came in the following inning with a four-run spot. By the time Freddie Freeman hit a two-run single, all nine of the Dodgers’ hitters had reached base at least once, signaling a complete performance from top to bottom. In the middle of that complete performance, it’s impossible not to highlight Freeland’s reaching base safely in four of his five plate appearances with three hits and a walk.
Almost used to the idea of not a lot of run support, Yamamoto took advantage of the eight runs his offense scored and delivered yet another terrific outing, especially for a pitcher who had as much trouble as he did in the first inning, in which Houston scored two. Yordan Alvarez lived up to his outstanding reputation and track record early this season with multiple hits, but beyond him, Yamamoto kept the home bats in check outside a Zach Cole home run in the fifth, finishing six innings with three runs allowed and eight strikeouts.
It would’ve been nice to see Ohtani sprinkle in a hit and end this, what is now a 0-for-17 run, but the MVP can only do so much when he’s not really given much to hit. At the end of the day, the two walks he earned both led to runs and played an important role in this offensive outburst.
Following Yamamoto, the bullpen was dominant, earning eight of their nine outs via strikeout, with a scoreless inning each from Kyle Hurt, Blake Treinen, and Jack Dreyer, the latter two striking out the side.
Game particulars
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Home runs— Alex Freeland (2), Kyle Tucker (4), Zach Cole (1)
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WP— Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-2): 6 IP, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts
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LP— Ryan Weiss (0-3): 4.1 IP, 8 hits, 7 runs, 6 earned runs, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts
Up next
The National League Pitcher of the Month in April gets the starting assignment against Peter Lambert, as Shohei Ohtani will also look to keep the offensive momentum going—Dave Roberts has already said that Ohtani will start and hit in Tuesday’s matchup with the Astros. The start time is exactly the same, at 5:10 p.m. (PT).
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