Shohei Ohtani pitched three scoreless innings, Alex Vesia emerged from a bases-loaded jam in the eighth and the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday afternoon.
Michael Conforto had three hits and scored both Dodgers runs, helping the defending champions end their longest losing skid since 2017.
After pitching as many as two innings in his return to the mound following 2023 elbow surgery, Ohtani got the Dodgers off in a positive direction when he retired nine of the 11 batters he faced in the first three innings.
Jung Hoo Lee, who walked with two outs in the second, and Mike Yastrzemski, who singled with two outs in the third, were the only Giants baserunners against Ohtani.
The Dodgers’ two-way star has now pitched nine innings over five starts in his mound comeback, allowing just five hits and one run for a 1.00 ERA.
Conforto singled then scored on a Tommy Edman infield out in the second and also came home on a Hyeseong Kim single in the sixth to produce the only scoring against Giants starter Landen Roupp and three relievers.
Roupp (6-6) went six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) and seven hits. He walked one and struck out eight, one off his career high.
Right-hander Emmet Sheehan (1-0) tag-teamed with Ohtani and took the combined shutout into the eighth before one-out singles by Patrick Bailey and Heliot Ramos, along with a walk to Yastrzemski, loaded the bases.
Vesia came on to retire Rafael Devers on a deep fly ball to right-center field that scored Bailey, and got Matt Chapman to ground out to third to retain the 2-1 advantage.
Dodgers left-hander Tanner Scott worked a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts for his 19th save.
Andy Pages chipped in with two singles for the Dodgers, who out-hit the Giants 8-3. Freedie Freeman’s first-inning double for Los Angeles, his 24th of the season, was the game’s only extra-base hit.
The loss was just San Francisco’s third in its past 10 games.
– Field Level Media
