Shohei Ohtani hit his 14th home run of the season in a 2-for-5, three-RBI outing to help the Los Angeles Dodgers sweep the New York Mets with a 10-3 victory on Wednesday.
The Japanese superstar had rested the second game of the previous day’s doubleheader, a 3-0 win for the Dodgers, while dealing with a bruised hamstring suffered during the team’s most recent home stand.
But he showed little sign of the ailment as he went deep over left-center field in the eighth inning for his first home run since May 17 and his first ever at New York’s Citi Field. The two-run blast followed an RBI groundball single to center field in the fifth.
Ohtani, last season’s American League home run king, climbed to second in the National League home run standings with the big fly off right-hander Jorge Lopez’s 0-2 sinker. It came amid a six-run barrage sparked by Will Smith’s solo blast.
Smith homered twice and pinch-hitter Jason Heyward also cleared the fence as part of a 16-hit day for the Dodgers.
In other MLB action, Shota Imanaga took his first loss in the majors after surrendering seven runs over 4-1/3 innings of the Chicago Cubs’ 10-6 defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Imanaga (5-1) had only given up five earned runs through his first nine starts of the season coming into the game at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
The 30-year-old Japanese lefty allowed eight hits, including a two-run homer to Christian Yelich in the first. He gave up another two-run bomb to Blake Perkins as part of a five-run third inning.
Yu Darvish (4-3) was charged with the San Diego Padres’ 9-1 loss to the visiting Miami Marlins, exiting after three innings in which he surrendered three runs on six hits.
