Freddie Freeman got three hits, while Teoscar Hernández hit a homer for the second game in a row, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 8-3 on Monday night.
James Paxton, playing his first game for the Dodgers, pitched five innings without allowing any runs. The Dodgers have won four out of their last five games.
Michael Conforto from San Francisco hit a solo home run in the sixth inning. Keaton Winn, the Giants’ pitcher, gave up three runs and struck out six batters in five innings.
Freeman, who had the second-highest number of hits in the MLB last season with 211, had his third game with multiple hits in the last five games. He also batted in two runs with a hit in the third inning and a double in the seventh.
The first four batters in the Dodgers’ lineup—Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freeman, and Will Smith—got eight of the nine hits and five RBIs. Smith got two RBIs with a sacrifice fly in the third inning and a single in the seventh.
Hernández hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning to increase the Dodgers’ lead to 6-1. It was his fourth home run in four games. Paxton allowed four hits, walked five, and struck out five batters. He faced difficulties, with the Giants having runners on base in several innings.
The Dodgers scored quickly against Winn, with Betts hitting a triple and scoring on Ohtani’s grounder in the first inning. San Francisco also got an RBI single from Flores in the seventh inning and a sacrifice fly from Jorge Soler in the ninth inning.
