Gavin Williams, Jose Ramirez power Guardians over Dodgers in LA
Gavin Williams had 10 strikeouts, Gabriel Arias and Jose Ramirez hit home runs and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 1.
Right-hander Gavin Williams had 10 strikeouts, Gabriel Arias and Jose Ramirez hit home runs and the Cleveland Guardians finished off a challenging season-opening road trip with a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 1. Williams (1-1) gave up two hits over seven scoreless innings with three walks as the Guardians won two of three games over the two-time defending champion Dodgers. They also split a four-game series against the Seattle Mariners, who were one win away from the World Series last year.
It was Williams' fifth career game with double-digit strikeouts. Cleveland won two games by scoring nine runs the entire series. Guardians pitching held the Dodgers to seven runs over the three games.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-1) gave up two runs on four hits over six innings as the Dodgers made history by becoming the first MLB team to start a Japanese-born pitcher in three consecutive games. Right-handers Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani started the first two games of the series. Freddie Freeman hit a home run with two outs in the ninth inning for Los Angeles, his first, to spoil the Cleveland shutout bid.
While Ohtani pitched well Tuesday, he is off to a slow start at the plate. He went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts Wednesday after entering the game 3-for-15, with no extra-base hits. Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Mookie Betts are hitting under .