PHOENIX — The Dodgers make their closing argument.
The Dodgers got two home runs from Freddie Freeman, a five-hit game from Teoscar Hernandez and Shohei Ohtani stole three bases as they beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 11-6, on Monday afternoon, putting their foot down in the National League West by winning three of four games at Chase Field in this series.
Both teams scored 67 runs in a four-game series that left both pitching staffs slightly traumatized. The Dodgers did their part, batting .338 (52-for-154) in the series while scoring 32 runs.
With the win, the Dodgers (83-55) pushed the Diamondbacks (77-61) back to six games in the National League West with 24 games remaining. The San Diego Padres are 5½ games behind pending the outcome of their game at Detroit on Monday night.
The Dodgers also won the season series against the Diamondbacks, 7-6, giving them the tiebreaker in the increasingly unlikely event they need it.
Despite their ongoing issues in the starting rotation, the Dodgers have entered September holding off the Diamondbacks and Padres by winning 17 of their last 23 games and five straight series as they chase their 11th division crown in the last 12 years.
They won the series in Arizona despite their starting pitchers in the first three games (Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone and Justin Wrobleski) allowing 18 runs in 11⅓ innings.
Jack Flaherty was acquired at the trade deadline to bolster the front end of this starting rotation and he’s given them a run of starts that have mostly resembled Monday’s outing – quality but not quantity.
He allowed just one run, scattering five hits and three walks. But his pitch count reached 96 after two consecutive two-out walks in the sixth inning and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled him. Flaherty completed six innings (and no more) only twice in six starts as a Dodger.
The Dodgers gave him the lead in the third inning when Chris Taylor led off with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on Mookie Betts’ single. Freddie Freeman made it 3-0 with a two-run home run down the left-field line.
The Dodgers extended their lead with a three-run seventh inning.
Ohtani led off the inning with a one-out single, then stole second and third. After Betts intentionally walked, Ohtani scored on a sacrifice fly by Freeman.
Ohtani (who was on base four times with two walks and two singles) had a third steal in the game and now has 44 homers and 46 stolen bases in his quest to become the first player with a 50-50 season.
Hernandez had his fourth hit of the game — one of three singles, along with a double and a triple — and scored with Betts on a two-out single by Will Smith.
The Diamondbacks lead the major leagues in runs scored from the seventh inning onward, including nine in the first three games of this series. They cut into the Dodgers’ lead with two runs in the seventh inning off Ryan Brasier and Anthony Banda, a solo home run by Eugenio Suarez in the eighth inning and two more runs in the ninth inning.
But the Dodgers responded by scoring five runs in the eighth inning, all after the first two batters were retired. Betts drove in two runs with a double and Freeman hit his second two-run home run of the game and fourth home run of the series.
More information to come on this story.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
