Recap: Dodgers break out a big ol’ can of whoop on the Yanks

CHAVEZ RAVINE — This one felt gooooood. After a thrilling comeback win on Friday night, the Dodgers wasted no time putting their boot to the Yankees’ throat on Saturday afternoon, exploding for buckets of runs on a blistering twenty-one-hit attack. When the carnage was over, it was a 18-2 win, and a series victory in what, so far, has been a one-sided rematch of these two World Series opponents.

The first inning set the tone for the dominance that was to follow. After starter Landon Knack faced the minimum in the top of the inning, the Dodgers got busy. Shohei Ohtani didn’t homer this time around, but he led off with a single against Yankees starter Will Warren. That led to a lot of good stuff. Freddie Freeman singled Ohtani to second and Shohei came around to score on a base hit by Will Smith. Max Muncy kept the line moving, driving in Freeman on a sharp grounder to center. Michael Conforto added a sacrifice fly to make it 3–0, and a Tommy Edman RBI double—his first of two on the night—extended the lead to 4–0 before most Dodger Dogs even got slathered with mustard.

Things unraveled further for Warren in the second inning. After issuing back-to-back walks to Teoscar Hernández and Freeman, Warren gave up a grounder to Will Smith that was initially ruled a double play, but reversed on review. That brought up Muncy, who launched a three-run homer to dead center—his fifth of the season and the 200th of his career—putting the Dodgers up 7–0 and knocking Warren out of the game. The Dodgers weren’t done. Conforto drew a walk, then scored when Edman laced his second double of the night, this one off reliever Brent Headrick, making it 8–0. Runners, stay in your lanes!

Then, rookie Hyeseong Kim delivered another body blow. With Edman at second, Kim connected on a two-run homer to right-center—his second of the year—to push the lead to 10–0. It was the most runs the Dodgers had scored in the first two innings of a game in four decades. Which is pretty good.

The Yankees’ only answer to this onslaught came in the top of the fourth, when Aaron Judge hit a solo home run, his 20th of the season, to break up the shutout. But it was far too little, too late. By then, the game was effectively over, and the Dodgers had already turned a much-anticipated matchup into a one-sided rout.

Just for fun, the Dodgers piled on in the fifth, scoring four more runs, thanks to singles from Kim and Ohtani, followed by a double off the bat of Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy’s second bomb on the afternoon. Reliever Mark Leiter Jr. grooved a middle-in splitter to Munce, and he promptly banged it off the right field foul pole to pour a little more salt into the gaping wound in the Yankees’ fans hearts. I probably should feel bad about this kind of beat down, but I don’t. Not even a little bit.

But we gotta share the love a little bit. Landon Knack pitched his second straight strong outing. Since the offense put the Knackster in his rocking chair with all the scoring, the righty could just cruise on the mound. He did give up the bomb to Judge, but hey, who hasn’t this season? Otherwise, he was all the Dodgers could have hoped for: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. Well done, young man.

Andy Pages, hitless until the seventh, smashed a two-out solo shot–his tenth of the year–off usual New York closer Luke Weaver to give the Dodgers a tidy fifteen runs on the day. In the bottom of eighth, Aaron Boone waved the white flag, and put position player Pablo Reyes into the game, and the Dodgers teed off on him as well, scoring three more. Among the hits was Dalton Rushing‘s first-ever MLB home run. Nice showing by Rushing, who took over for Shohei after the game got out of hand.

On the pitching side of things, Anthony Banda pitched a scoreless seventh. New Dodger Chris Stratton gave up a second solo shot to Aaron Judge in the eighth, but otherwise navigated the top of the New York lineup without incident. Then, in the ninth, more position player fun. Kiké Hernandez, with his goofy half-helmet, took to the mound and pitched a scoreless ninth to finish off the Yanks. Woo-boy. Some days, you just can’t put a foot wrong.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto and old pal Ryan Yarbrough will pitch the finale on Sunday Night Baseball to finish up the series. It’s going to be a late-afternoon start again, so the ball will probably be flying again. Buckle those seat belts for the 4:10 first pitch. Break out the brooms, boys!

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