Shohei Ohtani smacked a long homer against his former team for the second straight night to help propel the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels at Dodger Stadium.
Ohtani mashed a 459-foot homer to right center one night after sending a ball 455 feet over the center field fence. He has six homers in the past seven games and leads the National League with 23.
Gavin Lux also homered and Tyler Glasnow struck out 10 in seven innings as the Dodgers earned a split of the two-game series. Glasnow (8-5) allowed two runs (one earned) and two hits and didn’t issue a walk.
Alex Vesia allowed a hit in the eighth and Michael Peterson worked a perfect ninth to complete a three-hitter.
Zach Plesac (1-1) made his second start for the Angels and was charged with six runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out one and walked one.
Ohtani’s homer was the highlight of a four-run third inning that helped send the Dodgers to their 11th win over the Angels in the past 12 meetings.
Lux led off the inning with a homer to right center, his second of the season, and Cavan Biggio followed with a bunt single. Plesac then fell behind 2-0 to Ohtani, who feasted on a slider and sent it into orbit to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.
One out later, Freddie Freeman doubled and scored on Andy Pages’ two-out double.
The Angels got on the board in the fourth as Nolan Schanuel reached on catcher’s interference, moved to third on Taylor Ward’s one-out double and scored on Willie Calhoun’s groundout.
In the bottom of the inning, Miguel Rojas reached on an infield single and Biggio singled with one out to put runners on the corners. Ohtani walked to load the bases against Carson Fulmer, who also walked Will Smith to force in a run. Freeman followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-1.
Rojas doubled with two outs in the fifth and scored on Lux’s single to left to make it 7-1.
O’Hoppe went the opposite way with a homer to right center with one out in the seventh. It was his 10th blast of the season.
–Field Level Media