LOS ANGELES – At one point during the Dodgers’ desultory last homestand in April, Dave Roberts kvetched that he couldn’t remember the most recent time the Dodgers had played a complete game.
His memory is getting refreshed on a regular basis these days.
Max Muncy homered three times and Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages added one each to back Tyler Glasnow’s latest strong start as the Dodgers routed the Atlanta Braves 11-2 Saturday night.
The win was the Dodgers’ second in a row over the Braves this weekend and their 10th in their past 12 games overall.
During this dozen-game run, the Dodgers have looked like the complete team Roberts (and the front office) thought they had.
They have outscored their opponents 78-24. Eight times in the 12 games their pitching has allowed two runs or fewer. Six times the offense has put up eight or more runs. Four times they reached double digits.
The Dodgers offense went clubbing against Braves starter Bryce Elder, chasing him from the game with seven runs in the first four innings.
Muncy started it with his first home run, a two-run drive in the second inning.
Ohtani led off the third inning with his eighth home run of the season, passing Roberts for the most home runs by a Japanese-born player in franchise history. The homer also continued to make good on an offseason promise.
As the Dodgers were acquiring Glasnow from the Tampa Bay Rays and negotiating what would eventually be a five-year, $136.5 million contract extension, Glasnow said he got a video recruiting pitch from Ohtani during which the two-time MVP said he “hopes to hit some home runs for me.”
Saturday was the third time in Glasnow’s first eight starts that Ohtani has made hope a homer reality.
Pages, meanwhile, has been everything the Dodgers could have hoped for when they promoted him from Triple-A. He led off the fourth inning with his fourth home run in 16 games and extended his hitting streak to 10 games, adding a single later in the game for his sixth multi-hit game since arriving.
Just for good measure, Pages added a nice running catch on Marcell Ozuna’s drive into the corner to end the eighth inning.
Walks got Elder in deeper trouble in that fourth inning and three consecutive singles from Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith made it a four-run inning.
Ohtani and Freeman each had three-hit games. Muncy made it a four-hit, three-homer game by going deep in the seventh off lefty reliever Tyler Matzek and again in the eighth off right-hander Jackson Stephens.
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It was the first three-home run game by a Dodger since Trayce Thompson on April 1 last season
That was more than enough for Glasnow who held the Braves to two runs on five hits and a walk while striking out 10 in seven innings.
It was the third time in his past five starts that Glasnow has gone at least seven innings, the fourth time in that stretch he has struck out at least nine and the sixth time in his eight starts as a Dodger that he has allowed two runs or fewer. He continues to lead the majors in wins (six), innings (50) and strikeouts (63), tacking a 2.70 ERA alongside those stats.