Teoscar Hernández hit his 22nd home run, River Ryan struck out eight in his first major league win, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros 6-2 on Sunday.
Gavin Lux and James Outman also homered, and Shohei Ohtani stole his career-high 27th base for the Dodgers, who had a poor 1-7 road record in July before this game.
“That was a good win top to bottom,” Lux said. “To take one from an excellent team, avoid the sweep, have some momentum going into the off day. I think we all wanted that one pretty bad.”
With the Dodgers holding a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning, Hernández hit a slider from Bryan King 361 feet into the left field seats for a home run. Cavan Biggio extended the Dodgers’ lead with an RBI single to center field, scoring Lux, who had walked, making it 5-2.
Jason Heyward added another run with an RBI sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, scoring Ohtani.
“We need every bit of it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Up and down the lineup we got production. That was a good thing.”
After the first inning, Ryan (1-0) struck out six of the next 10 batters he faced through the fourth inning. The rookie did not allow a hit until Jon Singleton doubled off the right-field bullpen fence to start the sixth inning.
Ryan retired the next two batters with flyballs to center field but had reached his 91st pitch, so Roberts decided to bring in the bullpen.
“It was good to see him use that four-pitch mix effectively,” Roberts said. “We pushed him. I don’t think he’s gone more than 74 pitches in his professional career. He was in a good spot and I thought he left it out there. He gave us all he had.”
Ryan allowed one run on two hits and walked three in 5 2/3 innings.
“Unbelievable, it’s something you work for your whole life pitching in the big leagues,” Ryan said about his first win. “Fortunately, I was able to come out with a W today.”
