Los Angeles

Dodgers

The stolen base was the first of the season for Betts. The homer was the seventh, but it came with the Dodgers trailing 6-2 and with no runners on. Betts is starting to swing the bat better, but his .204/.267/.374 slash leaves a lot to be desired, even before you consider how good Betts has been for the overwhelming majority of his career.

Sheehan was brilliant for the first five innings, but he was unable to record an out in the sixth and was charged for three runs; one of them on a solo homer from Sam Antonacci, of all hitters. The right-hander certainly had quality stuff for the majority of this start, and despite the mediocre box score, there’s more positives to take from this outing than negatives. He’ll look to avoid the big inning against the Orioles on Sunday.

Yamamoto also retired the final 22 batters he faced against the Angels on Sunday, so he was working on a streak of 45 retired in a row until Mookie Betts booted a grounder with two outs in the eighth. Yamamoto got a groundout afterwards, but he gave up a homer to Tristan Peters to start the ninth. He then retired one more batter and was lifted at 109 pitches. Yamamoto was looking for his first MLB no-hitter after throwing two in Japan. The Dodgers’ last no-hitters were a combined effort in 2018 in which Walker Buehler started and went six innings and one from Clayton Kershaw in 2014. Yamamoto improved to 7-4 with a 2.52 ERA. He’ll get the Orioles next.

Muncy hit multiple homers for the 23rd time in his career and reached base safely five times for the sixth time. Both of Muncy’s homers today came with a man on, giving him his first four-RBI game of the year. 12 of his previous 14 homers this year had been solo shots, which is part of how he entered the game with just 24 RBI on the season.

In spite of the big day, Betts had quite a letdown with two outs in the eighth, committing an error on a grounder to end Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s bid for a perfect game. Yamamoto wound up giving up a homer to lead off the ninth anyway, so it’s a lesser story now. Though who knows if things might have ended differently if Yamamoto didn’t have to pitch to the extra batter in the eighth. Betts had three hits for the third time this year and scored three runs for the first time.

The homer, his 14th of the year, led off the game against Sean Burke. Ohtani didn’t show much enthusiasm on the bases today while playing through some knee soreness. It’s safe to say he won’t be a basestealing threat for at least a little while.

Rojas got checked out by a trainer during his at-bat in the seventh and was lifted for a pinch-runner after drawing a walk.

Edman will get in a couple at-bats for Triple-A Oklahoma City this weekend as he wraps up a minor league rehab assignment. The 31-year-old will be activated from the injured list prior to Tuesday’s series opener against the Rays. He was a consistent 30-steal threat just a couple years ago, but those thefts have evaporated and rendered him a non-factor in most fantasy leagues since he doesn’t offer much from an over-the-fence pop or batting average standpoint.

Wrobleski appears ready to take the ball on normal rest after leaving Thursday’s start against the Pirates with a hamstring contusion. The 25-year-old southpaw appears to have avoided serious injury. He’s compiled a respectable 2.95 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 45/16 K/BB ratio across 73 1/3 innings this season.

He’s back. Ohtani returns to the lineup at DH and will hit leadoff after sitting out Friday’s series opener to rest his ailing left knee. The encouraging news is that a precautionary MRI revealed no structural damage. The 31-year-old two-way superstar is expected to be given the green light to take the mound on Wednesday against the Rays in his next start.