Freddie Freeman hit a three-run homer against his old team, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 9-0 win over Atlanta on Monday night. This loss pushed the Braves out of the playoff spot.
Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 4 with a walk and two run-scoring grounders, bringing his RBIs total to 108. He didn’t hit a home run or steal a base during the series, so his numbers stayed at 47 home runs and 48 steals as he aims to become the first player with 50 home runs and 50 steals in a season.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up four hits and two walks in four innings, throwing 72 pitches in his second start since coming back from a right arm injury, up from 59 pitches on September 10.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “We’ve tried to take our time with him and make sure he is at full health and built him up the right way. It is a shot in the arm and he knows how valuable he is to our club.
These last two starts, I feel like we have a good foundation and we are almost to the point where we can just let him go.”
The Dodgers have now gone 15 innings without allowing a run and have recorded their 13th shutout of the season.
The Dodgers, leading the NL West with a record of 89-61, hold a 3 1/2-game lead over second-place San Diego. They scored nine runs on just four hits for the second time since 1906, with the other instance on June 4, 2021, also against Atlanta.
After losing the first two games of the series by a total of 16-3, the Dodgers outscored the Braves 18-2 in the last two games.
Freddie Freeman commented, “When you start off a series like this at the end of the year and you want to play well and drop the first two, to come back and respond, I thought that was big by the team.
I’ve played a long time and that was probably one of the weirdest offensive games I’ve been a part of.”
Atlanta, with a record of 81-69, fell one game behind the New York Mets (82-68) for the third NL wild card spot. The Braves were 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position, including 0 for 10 against Yamamoto.
