Angels Snap 5-Game Skid, Blast Dodgers 9-2 In Freeway Series
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — David Fletcher drove in three runs on three hits, Shohei Ohtani had two RBI doubles and the Los Angeles Angels snapped their five-game losing streak with a 9-2 victory over the slumping Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
Justin Upton and Taylor Ward homered in the Angels' four-run second inning, and Mike Trout had a late RBI triple as the Halos opened the Freeway Series with only their fifth win in 16 games.
Mookie Betts homered in the ninth for the Dodgers, who have lost four straight. The defending World Series champions swept the six-game Freeway Series last season, but they've lost 14 of 18 overall this year in an increasingly alarming early-season swoon.
Griffin Canning (3-2) pitched six-hit ball into the sixth inning, ending the Angels' recent pitching woes with three walks and four strikeouts. Patrick Sandoval pitched 3 1/3 innings of relief for his first save.
Julio Urías (4-1) had his least impressive start in a strong season for the Dodgers, yielding eight hits and five runs over five innings in his Angel Stadium debut.
The Dodgers actually scored first on Matt Beaty's RBI groundout in the second, but Upton led off the Angels' half with a 436-foot homer in his first game since returning from a two-day break with a bruised knee.
After Ward added his first homer of the season, catcher Drew Butera doubled in the first at-bat of his season debut before scoring on Fletcher's two-run single.
The Dodgers are already struggling mightily with pitching injuries, and their overall injury situation got even more shaky when Anaheim native Joe Kelly made his season debut in the sixth.
The veteran reliever was tagged for RBI hits by Jose Rojas — a fellow Anaheim native — along with Fletcher, Ohtani and Trout, who got credit for a triple when AJ Pollock misplayed his sinking liner to left. Pollock walked off the field gingerly after the play.
Kelly, who had surgery to remove cysts in his shoulder late last year, gave up five hits and four runs while getting just two outs.
BUTERA ARRIVES
The Angels acquired Butera from Texas earlier in the day in exchange for cash considerations. The 37-year-old journeyman catcher played 10 games for the Halos in 2015 before being traded to Kansas City and winning a World Series ring. Butera is filling in alongside Kurt Suzuki while Max Stassi and Anthony Bemboom are out with injuries.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Dodgers: OF Cody Bellinger ran at 60% effort and felt good afterward in Arizona, manager Dave Roberts said. The former NL MVP hasn't played since April 5 with a hairline fracture in his left leg. ... Rookie Zach McKinstry is moving without pain from his oblique injury.
Angels: Bemboom can't play because his back recently "locked up," manager Joe Maddon said. Stassi is on the injured list with an apparent concussion.
UP NEXT
Clayton Kershaw (4-3, 2.95 ERA) will start on three days' rest for the first time since the 2016 playoffs against the Angels' Dylan Bundy (0-3, 4.00 ERA). Kershaw is helping out the injury-depleted Dodgers because he's coming off the shortest start of his career Tuesday against the Cubs, throwing 39 pitches and going just one inning.
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