The Dodgers ended their seven-game losing streak against the Angels with a 6-0 victory Friday at Angel Stadium, getting the kind of clean win that had been absent in the rivalry for more than a year. Andy Pages broke it open with a three-run home run in the fourth inning, and Max Muncy followed on the next at-bat with his 12th home run of the season.
Teoscar Hernández added a two-run home run in the sixth as the Dodgers pulled away behind eight pitchers and held the Angels scoreless. Dave Roberts said the club had gone through similar frustration last season, when it could not beat these guys, and added, “So it was nice to beat these guys.”
The result mattered because the Angels had won seven consecutive games against their crosstown rival before Friday, their longest such run in the series. The Dodgers entered the night at 27-18, and the shutout offered a needed answer after a stretch in which the matchup had leaned heavily to the other side. It also came with Freddie Freeman sitting out after Roberts gave him the day off, though the manager said he was expected back in the lineup Saturday.
There was another layer to the night. Blake Snell, who had recently returned from the injured list and a rehab assignment, was scratched from his start against the Angels. That left the Dodgers to piece together the game with a bullpen approach, and they did it without allowing the Angels much to build on. Shohei Ohtani walked, doubled and struck out twice, but the Angels never got the burst they needed to threaten the lead.
Hernández’s performance carried extra weight because he said he was still working back into rhythm after a difficult stretch. “Just getting the confidence back there,” he said, describing a swing that has started to come around. He said the change has come from “getting better pitches to hit, hitting the ball harder, getting on base, taking a lot more walks, just do[ing] the positive things for the team.” Asked where the form stood now, Hernández said, “It’s getting better,” and then added a line that fit the night’s mood as Pages continued to surge: “He’s going to have my job when I’m not here.”
The game also brought a brief return for Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who played in his first game since coming off the injured list before leaving in the sixth inning because of irritation in his left wrist. That left the Angels with another setback in a game that had already slipped away by then. For the Dodgers, the scoreline and the timing of the power made the message plain: after seven straight losses to the Angels, this one belonged to them from the fourth inning on.
