Dodgers 4, Twins 3: A sweep secured after the Dodgers brush aside early drama by closing with 7 scoreless from Shohei Ohtani and the pen

Chad Moriyama 06/24/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

After taking the first two games, the Dodgers went for a sweep of the Twins behind Shohei Ohtani on double duty again, and there were a surprising amount of early fireworks given that Joe Ryan was on the other side. Thankfully, the Dodgers trudged through some drama between batterymates and managed to score one more than the Twins early on, while Ohtani and the pen made it stick in a 4-3 victory for the sweep.

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Twins ace Joe Ryan recovered from illness in time to start against the Dodgers, beginning by cruising through a clean 1st. However, he ran into a surprising foe in the suddenly-hot Mookie Betts, who hit his ninth homer of the season to start the 2nd for a 1-0 Dodgers lead. That was the 300th of his career.

Max Muncy followed with a single and amusingly stole second with one out, but they weren’t able to take that chance.

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Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani returned to the mound and had a frustrating out, though not just in terms of results. He did begin by taking five pitches to get the first two outs of the 1st, then issue a four-pitch walk, and took three more to get the final out.

Like with Ryan, the 2nd didn’t go as smoothly. A lead-off single was followed by a three-pitch strikeout, but two more singles followed in a row to load the bases. A bit of drama started at that point when Dalton Rushing got crossed up and he had a passed ball to score a run to tie things at 1-1.

In the meeting that followed, Shohei didn’t seem that thrilled with how things were going.

Later, against Ryan Kreidler, Ohtani challenged correctly despite Rushing telling him not to as he also did earlier in the inning.

Kreidler then singled up the middle to plate two more and make it 3-1 Twins before Ohtani was able to get a strikeout to end that mess.

Between innings, Freddie Freeman, Dave Roberts, Mark Prior, and their mental skills coach all had long talks with Rushing.

Shohei promptly took over the pitch-calling duties and struck out the side.

As that tweet mentioned, Shohei struck out the side in the 3rd.

However, they then had a two-out rally against him in the 4th after a walk and a double, but Mookie Betts saved him by stabbing a ball up the middle to end the inning.

Ohtani came back with a clean 5th, and then got a 1-2-3 6th as well thanks to a pair of strikeouts and another Betts play.

Despite Ohtani’s pitch count being reasonable, Dave turned to the pen anyway with a one-run lead: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 8 K, 89 Pitches.

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Fortunately, the Dodgers came right back against Ryan in the 3rd. Alex Freeland led things off with a double and Ohtani followed with a single up the middle to cut the deficit to 3-2 Twins.

With one out, Freddie Freeman walked and Mookie singled to load things up before Max Muncy stepped up and singled himself to tie the game at 3-3.

Alex Call then hit a shallow flyball to right, which was surprisingly enough to get Freddie home from third for a sac fly to make it 4-3 Dodgers before the rally ended in the 3rd.

Ryan then bounced back himself in the 4th by striking out the side, but a single (Freeman) and double (Mookie) put a pair in scoring position with one out in the 5th. That chance went for naught, which segued into a clean 6th, and that was it for Ryan.

Anthony Banda took over there in the 7th, hitting Andy Pages with one out, who then stole second and got to third when Freddie singled to corner things. However, the Dodgers again failed to capitalize, stranding both runners to leave the lead at one.

In the 8th, Yoendrys Gomez had no trouble, and Andrew Morris faced the minimum in the 9th after a single was erased by a double play.

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First out of the pen for the Dodgers was Kyle Hurt in the 7th, and he started ominously with a full-count walk to start things. However, he then got the next two batters before Rushing seemingly threw out a steal attempt but Mookie got sniped and fell over to continue the rally.

After another walk put a pair on for Byron Buxton, Hurt got away with a couple mistakes to him to keep the lead intact and end the 7th.

The 8th belonged to Alex Vesia, who got two strikeouts to start, including one on three straight changeups.

However, he then gave up back-to-back singles to put the tying run at second yet again, but he responded with an emphatic strikeout and a roar.

Tanner Scott then took over in the 9th trying for another one-run save, and after he gave up a lead-off single, he got a routine flyout, strikeout, and yet another strikeout to lock the game down again.

Huge year for him.

That’s four consecutive one-run saves for him.

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A rough one for Rushing, but hopefully just part of the process. They have enough time and breathing room for him to grow.

Mookie is now hot and went 3-for-4 today.

Good enough for me. Hopium restored!

— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) 2026-06-24T23:36:35Z

Travis, lol.

— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) 2026-06-25T00:02:19Z

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52-29, and that’s three in a row for a sweep.

The Dodgers get a day off tomorrow to travel back to the West Coast for a three-game series against the Padres. It’ll be on Apple TV and feature Roki Sasaki against Randy Vazquez.

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