Will Smith bombed a two-run double with one out in the top of the 10th inning Monday night, sending the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-4 victory over the rival San Francisco Giants in the opener of a three-game series.
Neither team had scored since Enrique Hernandez’s pinch-hit solo homer in the seventh when Giants reliever Taylor Rogers (1-2) struck out Shohei Ohtani with automatic runner Mookie Betts on second base for the first out of the 10th. But Rogers then walked Freddie Freeman, and both Betts and Freeman raced home on Smith’s go-ahead hit to center field.
J.P. Feyereisen walked Mike Yastrzemski with one out in the last of the 10th to put the potential tying run aboard. The right-hander got Thairo Estrada to ground into a game-ending double play, securing his first save of the season and fifth of his career.
Blake Treinen (1-0), who worked a scoreless ninth, was credited with the win, just the Dodgers’ second in five extra-inning games this season.
Despite a game-opening home run by Betts, the Giants led most of the way after Luis Matos smacked a three-run home run off Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the second inning.
The runs were the first allowed by the prized Japanese import in four road starts this season.
Getting a run-scoring infield single by Ohtani in the fifth and an RBI ground-rule double by Gavin Lux in the sixth, the Dodgers drew even at 3-3, but the Giants responded again. This time, Heliot Ramos grounded Yamamoto’s last pitch into left field for a run-scoring single with two outs in the last of the sixth, putting the hosts back up 4-3.
Yamamoto went 5 2/3 innings, charged with four runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out six.
The Dodgers needed all of two pitches in the seventh to forge the game’s last tie. Hernandez hooked an Erik Miller pitch around the left field foul pole for his second home run of the season.
Jordan Hicks went the first five innings for the Giants, leaving with a 3-2 lead. He allowed two runs and seven hits, with four strikeouts and no walks.
Betts had two hits and scored twice for the Dodgers, who won for the ninth time in their last 11 games. The leadoff homer was the 50th of his career.
Smith, Ohtani and Lux added two hits apiece for Los Angeles, which took three straight from the Giants at home in the first full week of the season.
Ramos had two hits for the Giants, who were out-hit 11-6 and fell to 1-2 in extra-inning affairs.
–Field Level Media
