Dodgers 5, Brewers 3: An early homer from Will Smith and late homers from Miguel Vargas & Shohei Ohtani fuel victory

Chad Moriyama 07/06/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

After a thrilling comeback win yesterday, the Dodgers and Brewers exchanged scoring early today with the good guys getting the better of it thanks to yet another Will Smith homer. However, they were unable to add to that lead for a long time, and the Brewers eventually tied the game late against Evan Phillips. Perhaps remembering they can homer too, it was Miguel Vargas and Shohei Ohtani immediately coming back with homers to take the lead, which was enough to secure a 5-3 victory.

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Coming off a disaster, James Paxton started off pretty rough today as well, with a walk scoring on a Willy Adames single in the 1st for a 1-0 Brewers lead.

Fortunately, the Dodgers came right back in the bottom half against Freddy Peralta with an Ohtani walk and yet another Smith homer. Coming off his three-dinger game yesterday, he got one over the wall in right for his 15th of the year to make it 2-1.

Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez followed with singles to corner things up with nobody out, but the Dodgers were only able to get one more run on an Andy Pages groundout to push the lead to 3-1.

After that wild start, things settled for a bit. Paxton got a clean 2nd and allowed just a two-out double in the 3rd, while Peralta saw only minor trouble in the 2nd after an Ohtani HBP and steal plus a lead-off walk in the 3rd.

Unfortunately, it was the Brewers who struck next behind a Rhys Hoskins solo shot against Paxton to cut the lead to 3-2 in the 4th.

Peralta’s last inning was the 4th after he loaded the bases with just one out, but neither Dills nor Freddie could get a run in, so Peralta made the labor of 104 pitches worth it.

Meanwhile, to finish his outing, Paxton worked around a single and walk in the 5th to at least limit the damage: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 83 Pitches.

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Against the Brewers pen, the Dodgers next threatened in the 6th behind a two-out Ohtani triple, but Christian Yelich‘s sliding catch in left robbed Smith of an RBI and the Dodgers of insurance. They threatened again in the 7th behind an error and a single that cornered the runners with two outs, but simply could not add to the lead.

Taking over for Paxton was Daniel Hudson in the 6th, who notched a scoreless frame, and then Blake Treinen got a perfect 7th.

Due to the heart of the order being up, it was Phillips in the 8th. Ruining that plan was Yelich, who made the Dodgers regret not being able to cash in their chances, as he homered to dead center to tie the game at 3-3.

In their half of the 8th, though, the Dodgers were able to bypass that whole hitting with RISP thing altogether against Bryan Hudson. Vargas pinch-hit for Gavin Lux and immediately made an impact after his big game yesterday, getting his third homer of the year just over the wall and Yelich’s glove in left.

There definitely wasn’t as much doubt about the next homer, when Ohtani drilled his 28th of the year for that insurance run to make it 5-3.

As planned, it was Alex Vesia for the save in the 9th, who cruised through three batters for the save.

Another good one, really.

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NL WESTRECORD
Dodgers55-35
Padres49-43 (7 GB)*

*Playing later today.

The series finale will take place tomorrow, again a few hours earlier at 10:10 AM HT/1:10 PM PT/4:10 PM ET. As Bruce highlighted earlier today, it’ll be Justin Wrobleski making his MLB debut against Dallas Keuchel, who I definitely realized was still in the majors.

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