Freeman flips it in the seventh
The Los Angeles Dodgers had lost eight of nine and needed someone to steady them. Freddie Freeman did. His one-out single in the seventh inning scored Shohei Ohtani from second base and pushed Los Angeles ahead for good in a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday, the opener of a seven-game homestand.
Freeman collected three hits on the night. Max Muncy did the heavy lifting with a bases-clearing double in the sixth. The comeback spared the Dodgers a deeper hole in a stretch that had started to look worrying.
Try it for $0.99.
Skubal still searching in Dodger blue
Tarik Skubal made his home debut and left without a decision: five innings, three runs, four hits, six strikeouts. Two starts into his Dodgers tenure, the left-hander has yet to win a game. That is a strange sentence to attach to a pitcher who claimed the past two American League Cy Young Awards in Detroit. Los Angeles acquired him at the trade deadline to anchor a rotation for October, and the returns have not arrived on schedule.
Kansas City got to him early. Jac Caglianone singled home a run in the first inning, then launched his 21st homer of the season in the third for a 3-0 lead.
Kansas City’s late surge falls short
The Royals would not fold. After Muncy’s double put Los Angeles up 5-3, Kyle Isbel answered in the seventh with a solo homer, his fourth of the year and first since April 22, ending a 41-game drought and tying the score 5-5.
Jack Dreyer took the win despite serving up the Isbel blast, and Edwin Diaz closed the ninth for his sixth save. Kansas City has now lost four of five and sits 3-8 since July 30, a slide quietly pulling the club out of the race. For the Dodgers, the win means less in the standings than in the clubhouse. Eight losses in nine games leave a mark. One rally scrubs off some of it.
Discover the rest of our MLB news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply