The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Yamamoto leads Dodgers; Rockies rally stuns Padres
Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched six shutout innings, and the Dodgers defeated the Washington Nationals 2-1 on Thursday to complete a three-game sweep.
Teoscar Hernández homered for the Dodgers, who matched a season high with fourth straight wins.
Joey Meneses had three hits for Washington, which was swept for the first time this season. The Nationals scored four runs in the series and went 4 for 20 with runners in scoring position.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani was 0 for 4, stopping a nine-game hitting streak and dropping his batting average from a major league-leading .371 to .358.
Yamamoto (2-1) didn’t allow a runner past second and allowed four hits and a walk while striking out seven. He had multiple runners on only in the sixth, when he gave up a pair of two-out singles before Keibert Ruiz’s inningending groundout.
Eddie Rosario led off the fifth with a liner just inches from Yamamoto’s head. The pitcher snared the drive as he fell to the ground, then smiled as he got up.
Evan Phillips worked a 1-2-3 ninth to remain perfect in seven save chances.
Mookie Betts led off the eighth with a walk against Jordan Weems, stole second and scored when Freddie Freeman poked an opposite-field, one-out single to left for a 2-0 lead. ROCKIES 10, PADRES 9 >> Elias Díaz capped Colorado’s sixrun eighth inning with a tiebreaking RBI double, and the Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 10-9 on Thursday in Denver.
Elehuris Montero and Hunter Goodman homered for Colorado, which rallied from a 9-4 deficit to earn a split of the fourgame series. Brenton Doyle and Brendan Rodgers each had three of the Rockies’ 14 hits.
Rodgers started Colorado’s big rally with a oneout double. Sean Bouchard then walked before Goodman greeted Wandy Peralta (1-1) with a 448-foot drive to left-center for his first homer of the season.
The 24-year-old Goodman
was recalled from Triple-a Albuquerque on Wednesday.
Jacob Stallings singled, Ezequiel Tovar walked and Brenton Doyle singled to produce another run for Colorado. After Tovar scored on a passed ball, Díaz lifted the Rockies to a 10-9 lead when he doubled into the left-field corner against Stephen Kolek.
Tyler Kinley (1-0) got three outs for the win. Justin Lawrence pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his second save.
Ha-seong Kim and Jurickson Profar homered for Padres, who had won three of four. Xander Bogaerts had two hits and drove in a run.
Historically bad
The Chicago White Sox dropped to 3-22, wasting a two-run lead and stretching their losing streak to a season-high seven with a 6-3 loss Thursday in Minnesota as Edouard Julien hit two of the Twins’ five solo home runs.
Chicago matched Cincinnati in 2022, Detroit in 2003 and Washington in 1894 as teams that opened 3-22. Baltimore began 2-23 in 1988.
Chicago, off to the worst start in franchise history, has been outscored 141-56 and allowed 38 home runs.
Minnesota swept the four-game series, its longest winning streak since five straight from last Aug. 3-7, 2023. Julien has seven home runs this season.
Injury woes
Cody Bellinger has two fractured ribs on his right side, sidelining another key player for the Chicago Cubs.
Bellinger got hurt when he hit the wall in center while trying to make a play
on Yainer Diaz’s RBI double in the fourth inning of Tuesday night’s 7-2 victory over Houston. He was replaced in the field before the Astros batted in the seventh. X-rays were negative, and Bellinger downplayed the injury after the win. But he had a CT scan on Wednesday morning that showed the fractures. Counsell didn’t have a timetable for Bellinger’s return.
• San Francisco Giants left-hander Blake Snell was scratched from Wednesday’s scheduled start against the New York Mets and placed on the 15-day injured list with a left adductor strain. Giants manager Bob Melvin called it a moderate strain that it happened during a bullpen session.
• New York Yankees third baseman DJ Lemahieu, 35, will be shut down for at least another week after an MRI and CT scan showed continued swelling in his fractured right foot Wednesday.
• Max Scherzer gave up three runs and five hits pitching into the third inning of a rehab start for the Texas Rangers’ Triple-a team on Wednesday night. It was the three-time Cy Young Award winner’s first game action since back surgery in mid-december.
Scherzer had surgery Dec. 15 to repair a herniated disk in his lower back. The eight-time All-star was forced from his start in Game 3 of the World Series after three innings because of back discomfort. An MRI after the Rangers won the World Series showed some inflammation in Scherzer’s back, and a later MRI after two epidural injections showed the herniated disk.