Jacob deGrom overcame allowing a leadoff homer to Shohei Ohtani by striking out nine batters, helping the visiting Texas Rangers record a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
deGrom (1-0) yielded one run on four hits in six innings before exiting after 93 pitches.
Evan Carter homered to lead off the third and Josh Smith had an RBI single later in the inning for the Rangers, who notched their fourth win in six games.
Brandon Nimmo drove in his second run of the day with an RBI single in the eighth, and Ezequiel Duran scored on a wild pitch later that inning.
Josh Jung had two hits and reached base four times as Texas took advantage of 10 walks to salvage the finale of the three-game series.
For the second straight day, Ohtani homered to lead off Los Angeles’ half of the first inning. The homer was his fifth of the season and extended his on-base streak to 46 games.
Kyle Tucker had an RBI single in the seventh inning to cut Texas’ lead to 3-2, but Cole Winn stranded runners on the corners by inducing Andy Pages to pop out to shallow left field.
Winn threw a scoreless eighth inning and Jakob Junis did the same in the ninth to secure his third save of the season and hand the Dodgers just their second loss in their last nine games.
Carter forged a 1-1 tie by sending a first-pitch fastball from Roki Sasaki (0-2) over the wall in right-center field for his second homer of the series.
Former Dodger Joc Pederson extended the third inning with a two-out single. He promptly advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Smith’s single to right field to stake the Rangers to a 2-1 lead.
Texas tacked on a run in the sixth inning. Jung worked a walk to lead off the inning, advanced to third on a throwing error by reliever Edgardo Henriquez and scored on Nimmo’s groundout.
Sasaki permitted two runs on five hits in four innings. He fanned six but drove up his pitch count with five walks and exited after 94 pitches.
