Mookie Betts hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning and the host Los Angeles Dodgers pulled out a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday to win for the sixth time in their last seven games.
Gavin Stone went seven strong innings and Enrique Hernandez also hit a home run as the Dodgers maintained their three-game lead on the hard-charging Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West.
Jonny DeLuca hit a home run for the Rays, while left-hander Jacob Lopez gave up one run on two hits over five innings with two walks and six strikeouts.
After he hit a home run in each of the first two games of the series, Rays rookie Junior Caminero nearly had a third in three games but had to settle for a sixth-inning double off the wall.
Stone and Lopez settled into a pitcher’s duel into the fifth inning. The Dodgers broke through in the bottom of the fifth on Hernandez’s home run to left-center field, his ninth of the season and second in the series against a left-handed pitcher.
The home run came after Hernandez made an outstretched running catch in the gap in left-center after a drive by Ben Rortvedt in the top of the fifth.
DeLuca’s home run, his fourth, tied the score in the seventh inning.
Shohei Ohtani was hit in the left wrist by a pitch from left-hander Richard Lovelady (3-5) to lead off the eighth. Betts followed one pitch later with his 13th home run of the season and third since returning earlier this month from a broken hand.
Stone gave up one run on three hits over seven innings for the Dodgers, while right-hander Blake Treinen (6-3) pitched a scoreless eighth inning and left-hander Anthony Banda pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.
Hunter Feduccia made his first career start for Los Angeles at catcher and had his first hit on a single in the seventh inning.
–Field Level Media
