LOS ANGELES — If you happen to tuned into the sport simply quarter-hour late on Saturday, you most likely thought your display screen was glitching. A 9-1 scoreline is the form of lopsided margin that normally takes a full night time of offense to construct — however the Dodgers delivered that precise cushion within the backside of the primary inning alone.
The transient flash of early hassle — an RBI triple by the Angels’ Oswald Peraza within the high half of the body — was immediately rendered a footnote. By the point the Dodgers lastly traded their bats for gloves for the second inning, they’d fully altered the trajectory of the night time, in the end happening to win, 9-2.
The nine-run outburst marked the highest-scoring body for the Dodgers in 2026, surpassing a six-run inning towards the Cubs on April 25.
It additionally represented the one greatest first inning throughout Main League Baseball since Aug. 1, 2025, when the Pirates put up 9 runs within the opening body towards the Rockies at Coors Area. To discover a extra prolific first inning in latest franchise historical past, followers must look again to June 2, 2021, when the Dodgers hung 11 runs on the Cardinals.
The sequence started with Shohei Ohtani legging out a leadoff infield single. Andy Pages then locked onto an 89.6 mph changeup from Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz, launching a towering two-run fly ball that sailed deep into left discipline and plunged straight into the Dodgers’ bullpen.
Ready beneath it was reliever Blake Treinen, who tracked the flight and made a clear catch in midair. The seize despatched his fellow bullpen members right into a frenzy, with pitchers and workers leaping up and down in an impromptu celebration circle whereas Pages rounded the bases.
“The homer by Andy to reply again was huge,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated. “Form of put to mattress any kind of momentum they’d within the high of the primary. After which after that, simply the hits saved coming, simply good at-bats.”
The Dodgers wasted no time extending the lead. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts hit back-to-back singles, each advancing on a wild pitch earlier than Max Muncy reached on a comebacker that Kochanowicz couldn’t deal with. Ryan Ward capitalized by hammering a line-drive double to heart discipline, bringing Freeman and Betts house — yet one more productive second for Ward since his promotion on Might 29.
“He simply appears very relaxed,” Roberts stated. “He appears assured. His swings present that. … You lose an All-Star in [Teoscar] Hernández, however you get a option to get a man that is been in our system a chance. And that is enjoyable. That’s enjoyable for everybody.”
The mounting strain broke the Angels’ defensive composure. Following a stroll to Dalton Speeding, the Angels introduced in reliever Brent Suter. As an alternative of halting the rally, Alex Freeland pushed a grounder to shortstop Zach Neto, whose throwing error allowed Muncy, Ward and Speeding to all cross the plate.
“We at all times say … you may’t give good groups additional outs,” Roberts stated. “… To offer us additional outs simply makes us actually robust to beat. [We] stress a starter, after which we acquired to their ’pen and acquired deep into their ’pen, which was good. And yeah, we have grow to be much more opportunistic.”
His staff staked to a six-run lead, Ohtani stepped again into the batter’s field to place an exclamation level on the body. He caught a 89.9 mph sinker on the interior half, drilling a two-run shot deep into heart discipline for his eleventh house run of the season. Ohtani’s second hit of the inning accounted for the ultimate runs of an 11-batter offensive stretch.
The Dodgers’ offense was unable to push throughout one other run afterwards, however the substantial lead allowed them to drag key starters early. That included lifting Freeman within the fourth inning for pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas.
“We went dormant after that,” Roberts acknowledged. “However I simply thought it was nice the best way we answered in that first inning, and permitting us to get Freddie off of his toes for greater than half the sport, I assumed, was good.”
