Dodgers continue power play in 18-5 win over D-backs
Cody Bellinger hit two home runs and Joc Pederson reached base six times, while Kenta Maeda pitched 6 2/3 much-needed innings, as the Los Angeles Dodgers shook off the effects from a long night Friday to earn an 18-5 victory Saturday night over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.
Pederson and Austin Barnes also hit home runs as the Dodgers scored in double digits for the second time in three games. Pederson and Bellinger each have three home runs in the first three games.
The Dodgers finished with catcher Russell Martin on the mound in the ninth inning. He pitched a scoreless inning. Diamondbacks catcher John Ryan Murphy pitched the final two innings, giving up seven runs on eight hits.
The position players were pressed into service on the mound one day after the teams played a 13-inning game in 6 hours, 5 minutes.
Jarrod Dyson, Alex Avila, Adam Jones and David Peralta all hit home runs for the Diamondbacks, but three of the four were solo shots. Dyson's home run was just the 15th of his 10-year career and his third in two seasons with the Diamondbacks.
Maeda gave up three runs on five hits with six strikeouts, mixing in a new changeup that has more downward bite. After the bullpen absorbed 7 2/3 innings Friday, Maeda was able to finish off all but the final seven outs in his season debut.
In an eventful first inning, Dyson went deep to right field to lead off the game. Pederson had an answer of his own with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first.
The Dodgers built a 5-1 lead in the third inning on consecutive RBI hits from Justin Turner, Bellinger and A.J. Pollock. Turner had a two-run single in the inning. Bellinger finished with six RBIs, while Turner drove in five.
After the teams traded runs in the fifth with Bellinger matching a home run by Avila, the Dodgers took control one inning later. Bellinger had a two-run single in a five-run sixth for the Dodgers that gave them double digits in runs twice in the first three days.
Jones' seventh-inning home run was his second in three games as a National Leaguer after signing with the Diamondbacks this spring. Peralta's home run was his first of the season.
--Field Level Media
