MINNEAPOLIS — Pitching, hitting and defense – the Dodgers had all three phases of their game clicking on Tuesday night as they defeated the Minnesota Twins, 12-3.
Justin Wrobleski ran his record to 9-2, leaving him one win shy of the National League lead. The left-hander gave up two runs on five hits in seven efficient innings.
The Dodgers tied their season high with 17 hits. Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages led the way with three hits apiece, including two doubles for Freeman.
And on defense, shortstop Mookie Betts made two dazzling plays to highlight a strong night with the leather for the Dodgers.
Defense set the teams apart in the early innings. The Dodgers scored their first two runs thanks in large part to misplays by Twins second baseman Luke Keaschall.
It started in the top of the first, after Twins starter Kendrys Rojas walked Shohei Ohtani and Pages. Rojas recovered to strike out Freeman and Betts, but Tommy Edman hit a hard grounder up the middle that went under Keaschall’s glove for an RBI single.
After Victor Caratini tied it with a second-inning home run, the Dodgers regained the lead in the third on a two-out throwing error by Keaschall, who charged a grounder and then flipped it into no-man’s land between pitcher Austin Voth and first baseman Royce Lewis.
The Twins eventually tied it in the bottom of the third, but not before the Dodgers made a sparkling defensive play to save a run and keep a potential big inning from spiraling out of control.
With Austin Martin on first and one out, Byron Buxton doubled to left-center field. As the speedy Martin rounded the bases, Pages got the ball in quickly, and Betts’ relay throw to catcher Chuckie Robinson was in plenty of time to nail Martin.
Wroblewski didn’t escape entirely unscathed, however, as Josh Bell dumped a single into short center field to score Buxton and tie the game 2-2.
The Dodgers responded by stringing together five singles in the fourth inning to open a 5-2 lead. Ohtani had a sacrifice fly to score the first run, and Pages, Freeman and Betts followed with consecutive two-out singles to plate two more runs.
The rally included a single by Robinson, his first hit as a Dodger and first major league hit since Sept. 21, 2024, when he played for the Chicago White Sox. Robinson followed that with another base hit in the fifth inning.
Betts subverted another big inning in fifth when he got a force out at second after a diving stab of Buxton’s one-out smash up the middle.
The Dodgers put it away by batting around and scoring five runs in the ninth, a rally that began with the first homer of the season for Alex Call, who was filling in for the injured Kyle Tucker in right field.
More to come on this story.