Dodgers end losing streak against Angels with 2-hit shutout

ANAHEIM — The spell is broken.

The Angels had beaten the Dodgers in seven consecutive matchups before Friday – including all six meetings in 2025 while the Dodgers were headed to a second consecutive World Series championship and the Angels were on their way to losing 90 games to everyone else they played. Whatever voodoo conjuring made that happen has apparently lost its effectiveness.

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The Dodgers lost Blake Snell to the injured list before the game and resorted to a bullpen game. That parade of eight relievers held the Angels to two hits in a 6-0 shutout victory on Friday night.

“They did a fantastic job. All of them,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the relief relay team.

“So I think we couldn’t have asked for a better situation tonight.”

The win was the third in a row for the Dodgers as they shake off the dust of a three-week muddle.

Meanwhile, more troubling for the Angels than a 19th loss in their past 24 games, catcher Logan O’Hoppe left the game after five innings after a ball in the dirt hit him in the left wrist. O’Hoppe just returned to the active roster on Friday after missing nearly three weeks with a small fracture in that same wrist.

After the game, Angels manager Kurt Suzuki and O’Hoppe brushed the issue off as “irritation” caused when he tried to block a ball in the dirt. No X-rays were planned and O’Hoppe will be re-evaluated on Saturday, Suzuki said.

“It’s uncomfortable but I’ve said that since we were going through it,” O’Hoppe said. “Keep treating it and we’ll be alright.”

Bullpen games were a winning strategy for the Dodgers last season – they were 8-5 when they went with the collective approach during the 2025 season. The key element, though, was not provided by those pitchers who had a 5.81 ERA in those 13 games. It was the offense. The Dodgers averaged 7.1 runs per game in their bullpen games.

They didn’t quite get there Friday, but they didn’t need to.

Will Klein opened for the Dodgers and retired the first five Angels in order before hitting Zach Neto with a pitch and giving up a single to Josh Lowe.

As the Dodgers’ bullpen passed the baton along from Klein, that second-inning single was the Angels’ only hit until Neto singled off Alex Vesia in the seventh inning. Neto was on base four times for the Angels (two walks, that single and the hit batter).

“Just get through it for the next guy. Don’t bring anyone into a bad spot,” Klein said of the mentality in a bullpen game. “Just put up a zero so the guy behind you can do (the same). It’s easy to worry about everyone having to go throw, like it be on our shoulders. But each guy just makes it easier on the next. That’s all you can do.”

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The Dodgers got all the offense they would need from home runs off Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz.

Kochanowicz was almost untouched through the first three innings, retiring the first eight Dodgers in order. But Will Smith led off the fourth inning with a single and Kyle Tucker followed with a walk. Both moved up on a wild pitch then both trotted home when Andy Pages got the green light on a 3-and-0 pitch and rode a fastball out to straightaway center field for a three-run homer. Three pitches later, Max Muncy lined an 0-and-2 fastball from Kochanowicz into the right field seats for back-to-back homers.

Two innings later, Muncy singled with one out and trotted home when Teoscar Hernandez lined a two-run homer over the wall in right field.

“Pretty frustrating day just because it started off pretty much how I wanted it to. But that’s baseball,” Kochanowicz said. “That’s a very good team over there. I definitely didn’t execute a few pitches and they made the most of it.”

For Hernandez, the home run was his first since April 15. Hernandez has been the Dodgers’ hottest hitter recently with 11 hits in his past 24 at-bats. Since being dropped to eighth in the batting order for two games by Roberts, Hernandez has gone 9 for 19 with three doubles and Friday’s home run.

“He certainly responded really well,” Roberts said. “I just felt the way things were going, the way he was going I felt it needed to be done. You can look at it in different ways – whether it’s a challenge or just giving him a different look. However he took it, he’s responded well and knows that I always have his – and everyone’s – best interest at heart.

“But we needed him to be better and have more consistent at-bats and he’s doing that right now.”

Hernandez said his revival has been about “just getting the confidence back, getting better pitches to hit, hitting the ball harder, getting on base, taking a lot more walks, and you know, just do positive things for the team” – not about any reaction to being dropped in the lineup.

“No, we have a good lineup, superstars from top to bottom, so I’m always saying that anywhere that he puts me in the lineup, I’m going to try to do my best and not think about coming up eighth or fourth or third,” Hernandez said.

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