A middle-inning rally lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 8-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in their season opener Thursday.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto started the game for the Dodgers and had a solid performance, pitching six innings and striking out six batters while allowing just two runs on five hits.
The Dodgers struggled the first time through the order, as the only hit they recorded through their first nine batters came from a Shohei Ohtani single. Arizona took first blood through Geraldo Perdomo, who hit a two-run blast to right field to give the visitors a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning.
Their lead didn’t last long, though, as Andy Pages crushed his first homer of the year—a three-run shot—in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Dodgers the advantage. Will Smith hit an infield single later in the inning with the bases loaded to give the Dodgers a two-run cushion heading into the sixth.
The Dodgers weren’t done yet, though, as they exploded for a four-run seventh inning to extend their lead to six. Kyle Tucker got his first hit and RBI as a Dodger, scoring Ohtani with a double, and Mookie Betts singled him in directly after.
Will Smith capped off the inning with a two-run shot to left center, the Dodgers’ second homer of the game.
The bullpen shut the Diamondbacks down in the late innings, with Blake Treinen taking care of business in the seventh inning to bounce back from a rough spring and Will Klein coming in for a scoreles inning in the eighth.
New addition Edwin Diaz didn’t come in to close the game due to the score, so Tanner Scott got the nod for the ninth inning. He also navigated a scoreless frame, ending the game and giving the Dodgers their first win of the season.
Who was your player of the game?
