Freddie Freeman homered one out of his four hits, leading the National League’s top team, the Los Angeles Dodgers (30-14), in a rout of host Arizona Diamondbacks (23–23) 14–1 on Thursday for their 10th win in 12 games.
Mookie Betts also had a big performance, hitting 3-for-5 and scoring three. Betts and Freeman both led off the game with doubles and then scored, as the Dodgers jumped out quickly to another early lead in the first inning after Will Smith’s single to center.
“The last 10 days, we’ve been able to strike first and often and tack on runs, and Mookie and Freddie are a big part of that,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “Those guys value the walk, so they’re always on base. They control the strike zone, and when you throw it in the strike zone, they can slug you. Just a deadly combination.”
It was Freeman’s second four-hit game on five at bats, which included a three-run homer in the second inning after Cody Bellinger’s single and Chris Taylor’s double—though Freeman’s last home run was over a month ago, on April 24.
The Dodgers would score four runs in the second inning to take a 6–0 lead, before adding four more runs in the sixth inning from Trea Turner’s triple, allowing Freeman to score one of his three runs.
“I haven’t hit one in a while, so I didn’t know,” said Freeman. “Maybe that opens the floodgates.”
Freeman’s five RBIs is a team high and also leads the Dodgers’ offense with a batting average of .312, having played every game of the season. He has 16 doubles this season and is two shy of Jackie Robinson’s record in the first 44 games.
“These are the kind of nights where you just sit back and smile because these don’t happen very often,” added Freeman. “It’s nice to be a part of it.”
Betts also raised his batting average to .299, having gone 33-for-93 (.355) with 24 RBIs and nine home runs this month—seemingly no longer suffering limitations from a hip injury.
“It’s wild,” said Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner. “You lead off the game with back-to-back doubles with good pieces of hitting, hitting the ball the other way. We talk about it a lot lately, because they’ve been so good.”
Every starter for the Dodgers had at least two hits, leading to 24 in total, tying the teams’ highest hit total since Sept. 13, 2014 against the San Francisco Giants.
Dodgers’ starter pitcher, Mitch White, was relieved after throwing four shutout innings—while Justin Bruihl (1–1, 2.25 ERA) got the win after a scoreless inning in the fifth.
The Diamondbacks would score their only run in the sixth inning with a solo homer by Christian Walker, his 12th of the year, off of Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips.
Chris Taylor increased the lead in the top of the eighth inning to 12–1 with a two-run homer, 384 feet to left field, scoring Justin Turner.
Two more runs were tacked on in the ninth inning by the Dodgers after Edwin Rios’s single, and Turner’s double—the two were driven in by Bellinger’s single to center for a final score of 14–1.
The Dodgers also became the second big league team with 30 wins, including the American League leading Yankees (32–13).
The two teams face off again on Friday at 6:40 p.m. PT, with Dodgers’ RHP Ryan Pepiot (0–0, 3.86 ERA) going against Diamondbacks’ LHP Madison Bumgarner (2–2, 2.76 ERA).
