Teoscar Hernandez hit a three-run home run and the Los Angeles Dodgers earned an 8-3 victory over the visiting San Francisco Giants on Monday in the first meeting of the season between the longtime rivals.
Freddie Freeman and Will Smith each drove in two runs and left-hander James Paxton (1-0) went five scoreless innings in his Dodgers debut. Los Angeles won for the fourth time in five games after splitting a two-game series against the San Diego Padres at Seoul, South Korea.
Hernandez has four home runs in the past four games after hitting two in a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday. Mookie Betts went 2-for-3 with two runs while Shohei Ohtani had an RBI and scored a run for Los Angeles.
Michael Conforto hit a home run and Jung Hoo Lee had two hits as the Giants dropped to 2-3 in their seven-game Southern California road trip to start the season. San Francisco split four games at San Diego.
Giants right-hander Keaton Winn (0-1) made his first start of the season and gave up three runs on four hits over five innings with six strikeouts.
Ohtani started the scoring with an RBI groundout in the first inning, and the Dodgers jumped in front 3-0 in the third on an RBI single from Freeman and a sacrifice fly from Smith.
The Giants finally broke through in the sixth inning on Conforto’s third home run of the season. But Hernandez matched that and then some with his three-run home run in the bottom half of the inning, a day after he hit one in the eighth against the Cardinals to start a go-ahead rally.
Wilmer Flores had an RBI single in the seventh inning for the Giants, but Freeman got the run back with an RBI double in the bottom of the inning. Smith followed with his second RBI of the game.
Right-hander Dinelson Lamet made his Dodgers debut in the eighth inning and gave up one run, which was unearned, in two innings. Giants right-hander Nick Avila made his major league debut in the seventh and allowed two runs on three hits over two innings.
–Field Level Media