LOS ANGELES — On a night when he did not set foot on the mound, Shohei Ohtani still made an impact on a pitchers’ duel.
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Ohtani disrupted a scoreless deadlock with a solo home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Dodgers finished off a 1-0 victory over the Tampa Bays as their run of success at home continued.
A bullpen that had wobbled during the recent road trip to Pittsburgh and Chicago, locked down the final three innings as the Dodgers (47-27) improved to 11-2 at home since May 13. They earned their ninth shutout of the season and their major league-best 47th win of the season in a game that took just 1 hour, 52 minutes.
The trio of Will Klein, Kyle Hurt and Tanner Scott backed up left-hander Justin Wrobleski who gave up just three singles over six scoreless innings. It was Wrobleski’s second outing of six scoreless innings over his last three starts.
The sixth starter when the season began, Wrobleski did not even get his first turn in the rotation until the second week of the season. He has not looked back, improving to 8-2 while lowering his ERA to 2.72.
Ohtani’s home run in the sixth was the only mistake made by Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen, who was on a 19-inning scoreless streak when the game’s lone run scored.
Klein got off to a dubious start to his outing in the seventh inning with a walk to Junior Caminero, but Ryan Vilade fouled out and Ben Williamson grounded to second base for a nifty double play on the pivot from shortstop Mookie Betts.
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Hurt was all business in the eighth, ending his outing by getting Taylor Walls to strike out looking. All 10 of Hurt’s pitches in the inning were strikes.
Scott earned his ninth save with a perfect 11-pitch ninth inning that included a pair of strikeouts.
Ohtani might have developed a case of left knee inflammation from a start on the mound in Pittsburgh last week, but the discomfort has not impacted his power game. Since last Wednesday’s game against the Pirates, Ohtani has four of his 15 home runs on the season, and he didn’t even play in Friday’s game against the White Sox.
Ohtani’s two-way duties will require him to pitch in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against the Rays.
Tampa Bay (41-29) has not found Southern California to its liking. The Rays are 1-4 against the Angels and Dodgers since Friday and are in danger of getting swept in a three-game series for the second time this month.
The Rays also were held scoreless in an 8-0 loss to the Angels on Saturday night.
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More to come on this story.