A four-run first inning for the host Los Angeles Dodgers, with a leadoff home run from Shohei Ohtani and a three-run shot from Teoscar Hernandez, keyed a 6-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.
Ohtani had not had an extra-base hit or an RBI at Dodger Stadium this season, doing much of his damage on the road. It took four pitches in the bottom of the first inning to end that drought, as Ohtani sent a Jack Leiter slider into the seats in right field to tie the game at 1.
The Rangers led briefly on Brandon Nimmo’s home run two pitches into the game off Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan. Nimmo added a two-run home run in the sixth off Sheehan, and had three of the Rangers’ four hits.
Hernandez, Ohtani and Will Smith had two hits each for the Dodgers, who won their seventh game in the past eight.
Sheehan (2-0) allowed three runs on four hits with six strikeouts and one walk over six innings.
Andy Pages doubled home Hernandez in the eighth for an insurance run, and relievers Jack Dreyer, Tanner Scott, Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia kept the Rangers from scoring over three innings.
Treinen got two outs in the ninth but allowed two runners to reach base. Vesia came on to strike out pinch hitter Danny Jansen for his first save of the season.
Leiter (1-1), who looked sharp in his first two starts, got through 3 2/3 innings with five runs on five hits in his first career appearance against the Dodgers. He walked four and struck out four, after walking just two in his first two starts.
The Rangers have lost back-to-back games since a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners earlier in the week.
–Field Level Media
