Dodgers score 9 runs in 1st inning, rout Angels in Freeway Series

LOS ANGELES — You don’t get the worst record in baseball by accident. You have to earn it.

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For the first time in the first five Freeway Series games this year, the Angels did take a lead, scoring in the first inning against Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

That lasted about 10 minutes.

The Dodgers sent 12 batters to the plate in their half of the first inning and scored nine runs, never looking in the rear-view mirror on their way to a 9-2 victory over the Angels Saturday night.

The Angels somehow beat the Dodgers in all six Freeway Series meetings last season. This year, the Dodgers have punished them for their temerity, winning the first five meetings by a combined score of 41-5.

During the three-game series in Anaheim last month, the Angels never held a lead at any point. They at least managed that in the first inning Saturday when Wade Meckler beat out a bunt single and Oswald Peraza sent a deep drive over Andy Pages’ head in center field. Pages reached up and got his glove on it near the wall but couldn’t make the catch. It dropped for an RBI triple.

The Angels’ highlight package for the night could have ended right there.

The first six Dodgers in the bottom of the first and nine of the first 10 reached base. All of them scored, making it the Dodgers’ biggest inning since they also scored nine against the Washington Nationals in the seventh inning on July 2, 2021.

Pages and Shohei Ohtani each hit two-run home runs in the inning. Ryan Ward had a two-run double. Three runs scored when Angels shortstop Zach Neto made a wild throw to second base on a potential inning-ending double play.

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Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz made 38 pitches to eight batters, retiring just one (Alex Call struck out) before he was pulled from the game.

A pleasant surprise when he had a 3.05 ERA over his first seven starts this year, Kochanowicz has followed that with an 11.51 ERA over his past six, making his status in the Angels’ rotation as uncertain as most attempts to pronounce his name.

All drama drained from the game after one inning; the two sides played out the remainder of the required nine innings, presumably out of contractual obligation or just force of habit.

Yamamoto retired 22 consecutive Angels after Peraza’s triple, allowing no more baserunners while completing eight innings for the first time this season. Over his past four starts, Yamamoto has been outstanding, allowing just three runs on 16 hits over 27⅓ innings.

But that doesn’t make him unique in the Dodgers’ starting rotation.

Over their past 23 games, Dodgers starters have a 1.95 ERA and an 0.89 WHIP. The starting pitchers have gone at least six innings 15 times during that stretch and held opponents to two runs or less in each of their past 13 games.

Not entirely coincidental – the Dodgers have won 18 of those 23 games.

Neto finally ended the string of Angels batters retired in a row when he homered off Dodgers reliever Jack Dreyer in the ninth inning. But the Angels lost for the fifth time in their past six games and remain tied with the Colorado Rockies for the worst record in baseball (24-41).

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