​The Los Angeles Dodgers used the favorable hitting conditions in Sacramento to defeat the A’s 9-3 on Tuesday. Dodgers starter Eric Lauer endured early trouble, allowing three runs in the second inning, but settled in afterward, finishing six innings with two strikeouts, nine hits, and one walk allowed. The Dodgers opened the scoring in the second when three straight singles plated the game’s first run, and Dalton Rushing added an RBI single in the same inning to push the lead to 2-0.
The A’s answered quickly in the bottom of the second, as Colby Thomas led off with a home run and they followed with three straight singles to plate another run, plus an RBI groundout that made it 3-2. In the fourth, Max Muncy tied the game for the Dodgers with his 16th homer of the season, the first given up by A’s starter Gage Jump all year. Andy Pages then hit a two-run shot later in the inning, giving Los Angeles a 5-3 edge and snapping a 17-game homer drought for Pages.
Shohei Ohtani, quiet through five, finally connected in the sixth with a leadoff windup, as Miguel Rojas and Rushing reached to start the inning, and Ohtani launched a 432-foot homer into the berm behind the right-field bullpens. The Dodgers added another insurance run in the eighth when Freddie Freeman singled home Rushing for his second run of the game.
In the bottom of the ninth, the A’s mounted a late rally as debutant Joshua Kuroda-Grauer reached second with no outs, followed by a single and a passed ball to bring him home. Two outs later, a runner in scoring position remained, but pinch-hitter Joey Meneses could not extend the rally, and Jack Dreyer struck him out to end the game.