Dodgers 9, Phillies 1: Ryan Ward’s 1st homer & Alex Freeland’s big day provides … run support (?!) for Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Chad Moriyama 05/31/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

After yesterday’s win-streak snapping loss, the Dodgers got right back to winning today to take the series against the Phillies. Following missed chances to put the game away and a frustrating blown lead, the Dodgers piled on today and kept the game free of drama at the end in a 9-1 victory.

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Andrew Painter has struggled this season for the Phillies and the Dodgers did not make things better for him today.

He worked around a lead-off single and two-out walk in thte 1st thanks to Justin Crawford‘s ridiculous play on Andy Pages‘ liner to the wall.

It looked like a lead-off Max Muncy single would also be stranded in the 2nd, but Alex Freeland stepped up and doubled off the wall in center for a 1-0 lead.

In the 3rd, it was a one-out single from Freddie Freeman that was advanced to second with the second out and then cashed in with a single off the bag from Kyle Tucker. 2-0.

The offense did things the easy way in the 4th, as Ryan Ward hit his first MLB homer and later Alex Freeland knocked Painter out of the game with his third homer to make it 4-0 Dodgers.

Their pen took over and got three outs in a row, but then the scoring started again in the 5th. A one-out Mookie Betts walk was followed by a Kyle Tucker double, and then with two outs Alex Call blooped a single in to make it 6-0.

The Dodgers then scored for the fifth inning in a row in the 6th, as Andy Pages got a sun-aided pop-fly triple to … second base and then Freddie Freeman hit a sac fly to make it 7-0.

In the 7th they got another run via Max Muncy’s team-leading 14th dong.

They added another run in the 8th to score in their seventh inning in a row, as an Alex Freeland walk, Shohei Ohtani single, and Andy Pages walk loaded the bases, then Freddie Freeman hit another sac fly to make it 9-0.

That was it, tho.

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On the other end was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was posting zeroes but didn’t really look great. He was constantly behind in the count and laboring for the most part … but keeping the Phillies scoreless as well.

In the 1st, he got a pair of strikeouts in a 1-2-3 frame, thanks to two successful Dalton Rushing challenges (a theme). Dave Roberts was hyped.

He also faced the minimum in the 2nd, but that was despite a lead-off walk due to him picking the runner off. Yamamoto worked around a lead-off hit batter in the 3rd, a pair of singles in the 4th, and a single and double in the 5th.

Surprisingly, Yamamoto continued in the 6th, issued a lead-off walk, and got a strikeout before Dave finally came to get him.

Not anywhere near his best, but effective: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 10 K, 104 Pitches.

Will Klein entered in relief and issued a walk himself before getting the final two outs of the 6th. Edgardo Henriquez entered for the 7th, issuing a two-out walk but nothing else.

To close the game’s final two frames was Jonathan Hernandez, who got the 8th in 1-2-3 fashion.

Then he gave up a solo shot to Bryson Stott to start the 9th and end the shutout, and Freeland had an exciting final two plays to end the game.

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?

Freddie Freeman killed JT Realmuto.

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38-21 and 14-3 in the last 17.

The Dodgers will now travel to Arizona for a four-game series against the Diamondbacks, starting at 3:40 PM HT/6:40 PM PT/9:40 PM ET with Emmet Sheehan on the bump against Eduardo Rodriguez.

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