Shohei Ohtani powers Dodgers as they complete sweep of Braves
LOS ANGELES — On the first of Shohei Ohtani’s two home runs Sunday, the wait appeared to be the hardest part.
Ohtani blasted a two-run home run in the first inning on a slow curveball and the Dodgers were on their way to a three-game sweep by getting past left-hander Max Fried and the Atlanta Braves in a 5-1 victory.
Ohtani added the exclamation point with a 464-foot blast in the eighth inning for his first two-homer game in a Dodgers uniform. It was the 17th multi-homer game of his career.
Almost lost in the wonder of the Ohtani fireworks display is that the sweep came against a team that entered the series with the best record in baseball and had an MLB-low nine losses at the time. Two weeks ago, the Dodgers were stumbling through an unsightly homestand with an inconsistent offense.
“Playing against a really good team with us being able to pitch well against a really good offensive team was really important for us,” Ohtani said through an interpreter.
It also was the third time this season Ohtani has delivered home runs in consecutive games and the first time he did it against the same team. He also matched a career high with four hits, and his first with the Dodgers, after a three-hit performance Saturday.
Ohtani’s lone homer Saturday allowed him to pass manager Dave Roberts for most in franchise history from a Japanese-born player. His two Sunday gave him a team-leading 10 to also tie for the major league lead.
The “oohs” began almost immediately from a sold-out crowd of 52,733 as Ohtani waited on a 75-mph rainbow curve from Fried in the first inning and launched it 412 into the netting beyond the center-field wall. He was all smiles as teammate Freddie Freeman greeted him at home plate after Mookie Betts scored in front of him.
“It helps with the (first) Shohei homer, a curveball up in the zone, and he got us on the board and kind of set the tone,” Roberts said. “Max Fried, when he’s right, he’s as good as anybody in baseball. … For us to win three against that team, that’s a big series.”
The power was slow to come at the start of the season, but the Ohtani the Dodgers envisioned after settling on a 10-year, $700-million contract has arrived. Ohtani went without a long ball in his first eight games, but has his 10 in the last 27 contests.
“I just feel like we’re overall playing really well so that’s really helping me to have quality at-bats,” Ohtani said. “I’m just feeling good overall.”
His three-strikeout game Tuesday at Arizona, that preceded a day of rest Wednesday, is all but a memory. Ohtani’s personal day of rest was then followed by a team-wide off day in advance of the Braves’ arrival.
“That two-day blow, I thought, was big,” Roberts said. “He was a different player in this series. That reset was nice for him.”
In the eighth inning, Ohtani sent the first pitch from Braves reliever A.J. Minter deep into the seats on the left-field side of straightaway center.
Yet Ohtani alone could not make the series sweep happen. Teoscar Hernandez added a two-run home run in the sixth inning and veteran left-hander James Paxton (4-0) made the offense stand up by allowing one run through 6 2/3 innings.
Hernandez even chipped in with his defense, throwing out Matt Olson at second base after the Braves’ standout tried to stretch his hit off the right-field wall into a double.
Paxton stayed in the strike zone, for the most part, allowing two walks after he entered with an MLB-leading 22 free passes. It led to Paxton’s longest outing of the season and his longest since going 7 2/3 innings for the Boston Red Sox against the Toronto Blue Jays on June 30 of last season.
“Walking guys always makes the game harder,” said Paxton, who worked on what he called ‘choppy’ mechanics after his last start. “Being able to get into the strike zone and not walk as many guys was nice.”
Blake Treinen made his season debut with a scoreless eighth inning. It was just his sixth outing since 2022 after two years of recovery from a shoulder injury and a line drive off the chest in spring training that caused two broken ribs and a bruised lung.
“I think the thing that (the series sweep) speaks to is that if we pitch well, we can keep any team at bay,” Roberts said. “With our offense, every game is winnable. Early on, I don’t think we were pitching to our capabilities and right now, across the board, … guys are making pitches.”
The bonus was that the victory came all while giving Max Muncy a day of rest with Fried on the mound, following his first-career three-homer game Saturday. The Dodgers hit eight home runs in the last two games against the Braves.
Fried (2-1) was pitching after he delivered a complete game and six no-hit innings in each of his previous two starts.
“I was aware that he had been pitching really well so I knew that I had to attack these guys and go right after them,” Paxton said.