After his longest home-run drought in two seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers ended, Shohei Ohtani will be out for more in Sunday’s series finale against the San Francisco Giants.
Ohtani hit two home runs Saturday in what had been an 11-run rout until the Giants scrambled for some late runs against position-player-turned-pitcher Enrique Hernandez. Los Angeles finished off an 11-5 victory to even the series at one win apiece.
The teams entered Saturday tied for first place in the National League West.
Ohtani had gone 10 games without a home run before he went deep against Giants right-hander Landen Roupp in the first inning. He added another home run against right-hander Tristan Beck in the sixth.
“It did feel like I haven’t hit a homer in a while,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. In terms of the context of the two homers, I felt that the first was more significant just being able to score early in the game.”
Veteran Clayton Kershaw dominated with a throwback outing by going seven scoreless innings.
Right-hander Dustin May (3-4, 4.46 ERA) will try to follow his teammate’s lead.
May is coming off one of his worst outings in his return from Tommy John surgery after giving up six runs (five earned) on six hits with four walks in five innings at San Diego on Monday.
May is 2-1 with a 1.62 ERA in five career appearances (three starts) against the Giants but hasn’t faced them since April 11, 2023.
After the Giants rode right-hander Logan Webb to the victory in the series opener Friday, Roupp did not get out of the second inning Saturday.
Next up for San Francisco is left-hander Kyle Harrison (1-1, 4.56), who will be making his ninth appearance and fifth start after opening the season at Triple-A Sacramento. He is 0-1 with a 3.52 ERA in three lifetime starts against Los Angeles.
After he gave up five runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings to the Padres on June 4, Harrison was touched for three runs on four hits in five innings Tuesday at Colorado. It gives him a 7.71 ERA over the last two outings.
San Francisco was three outs away from being shut out for the eighth time this season, but it scored five times against Hernandez, who was called in for mop-up duty in the ninth. After the Giants loaded the bases on three walks, Casey Schmitt hit a grand slam.
It was Schmitt’s second career slam, with both coming in the first two games of the series. He is the first player in franchise history with grand slams in back-to-back games.
“That’s cool. We lost, though,” Schmitt said. “I’m just not letting up. I don’t like giving away at-bats. I’m trying to play hard the whole time whether that’s on defense or if they’ve got a position guy going on the mound. I’m locking it in. It all matters. That might have been the first time I ever got a hit off a position guy, even in the minors too.”
–Field Level Media
