Shohei Ohtani hit his National League-leading 30th home run and Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched seven strong innings as the Los Angeles Dodgers opened a six-game homestand with a 6-1 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox on Tuesday.
Andy Pages and Michael Conforto each drove in two runs as the Dodgers improved to 13-3 since June 14. Will Smith reached base three times on two walks and a hit scored two runs.
Yamamoto (8-6) gave up one run on three hits with eight strikeouts and retired the last 10 batters he faced.
Lenyn Sosa had two hits and drove in a run as the White Sox lost after winning their last series over the San Francisco Giants. Chicago rookie right-hander Shane Smith gave up six runs on six hits and three walks, with six strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings.
White Sox hitters struck out 12 times, six of them coming from the bottom three spots in their lineup.
The Dodgers got to Smith early with a four-run first inning. After Smith retired Ohtani and Freddie Freeman to open his outing, the next five Los Angeles hitters reached base. Teoscar Hernandez had an RBI single, Pages had an RBI double and Conforto followed with a two-run single.
Pages made it 5-0 in the second inning with an RBI single and now has multiple hits in 11 games since the start of June.
The White Sox broke through in the fourth inning against Yamamoto when Andrew Benintendi led off with a single and scored on a two-out double from Sosa.
The Dodgers got the run back in their half of the fourth when Ohtani crushed a 408-foot home run to right-center. The reigning National League MVP now has 30 home runs in each of his last five major league seasons.
White Sox left-hander Tyler Alexander followed Smith by retiring all seven batters he faced, with three strikeouts over 2 1/3 innings.
The Dodgers played without shortstop Mookie Betts, with manager Dave Roberts calling it a planned day off.
–Field Level Media
