Freddie Freeman homered, doubled and drove in two runs and Will Smith and Tommy Edman also homered as the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the visiting Detroit Tigers with a 7-3 victory on Saturday night.
Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run, go-ahead double in the fifth inning and Michael Conforto had an RBI double in the second for Los Angeles (5-0), which is off to the team’s best start since opening the 1981 season with a 6-0 mark. It also was the fourth comeback victory of the season for the defending World Series champions.
Anthony Banda (1-0), the fourth of seven Dodger pitchers, picked up the win, striking out two during a hitless fifth inning. Starter Roki Sasaki, ranked the No. 1 prospect by MLB.com, struggled in his Dodger Stadium debut allowing two runs on three hits and four walks over 1 2/3 innings. Sasaki, who struck out two, left after throwing 61 pitches, just 32 for strikes.
Jake Rogers tripled, Zach McKinstry went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Manuel Margot also had two hits and an RBI for Detroit. Reese Olson (0-1) suffered the loss allowing four runs on four hits over 4 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out five.
Detroit sent eight batters to the plate while building a 2-0 lead in the first inning. McKinstry and Spencer Torkelson singled and Colt Keith walked to load the bases. Margot drove in McKinstry with a dribbler up the third base line and Trey Sweeney then walked to force in Torkelson. Sasaki then got Rogers to ground out to end the 41-pitch inning.
Freeman cut it to 2-1 in the bottom of the first with a 418-foot homer deep into the right field pavilion. The Dodgers then tied it in the second on Conforto’s double off the glove of first baseman Torkelson, driving in Andy Pages who had singled.
The Dodgers took a 4-2 lead in the fifth on Hernandez’s two-run double over the third base bag to drive in Conforto, who had led off with a walk, and Shohei Ohtani, who was intentionally walked to get to Hernandez.
Smith extended the lead to 5-2 in the sixth with a leadoff home run to left. The Tigers closed to 5-3 in the seventh when Rogers led off with a triple off the glove of right fielder Hernandez and scored one out later on McKinstry’s infield single.
Edman made it 6-3 when he led off the seventh with his third homer, a 397-foot drive to right-center on the first pitch by reliever Kenta Maeda. One out later, Ohtani walked, stole second and came around to score on a double by Freeman to finish the scoring.
