Shohei Ohtani pitched seven scoreless innings, Santiago Espinal and Mookie Betts hit back-to-back home runs and the Los Angeles Dodgers ended a four-game losing streak with a 4-0 victory over the visiting San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.
Teoscar Hernandez and Alex Call also drove in runs in a new-look lineup as the Dodgers won for just the second time in six games against the rival Giants this season.
Ohtani (3-2) allowed four hits with two walks and eight strikeouts as he lowered his ERA to 0.82 in seven starts. The two-way star was not used as a hitter for the fourth time on a day that he pitched.
The Giants received two hits each from Luis Arraez and Rafael Devers as they saw a three-game winning streak come to an end, as well as an eight-game home-run streak.
Left-hander Robbie Ray (3-5) gave up four runs (three earned) on seven hits over 4 2/3 innings for San Francisco. He had two walks with two strikeouts as he lost for the fourth time in his last six starts.
Ohtani gave up a walk to Heliot Ramos and a single to Devers but escaped further trouble in the first inning. The Dodgers got on the scoreboard in the third when Espinal hit his first home run of the season and Betts followed with another for a 2-0 lead.
The homer was Betts’ third of the season and first since he returned Monday from a month out of action because of an oblique injury.
The Dodgers made it 4-0 one inning later when Hernandez followed a Kyle Tucker double with an RBI single and Call had a sacrifice fly to right. Miguel Rojas had a single in the fourth inning for Los Angeles to end an 0-for-22 slide.
Espinal was batting ninth, with Call batting eighth in a right-handed heavy lineup against the left-hander Ray.
Ohtani got into a jam in the seventh when Willy Adames and Matt Chapman had back-to-back one-out singles. Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages then turned a double play when tracked down Drew Gilbert’s drive to the warning track and threw out Adames, who was late to return to the bag.
