LOS ANGELES — What was shaping up to be a disappointing homestand for the Dodgers ended on a high note.
Teoscar Hernandez made sure of it.
Hernandez hit a go-ahead three-run home run in the sixth inning to back a solid outing from Dustin May, and the Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-1, on Wednesday night to wrap up their nine-game homestand.
Hernandez’s blast swung the game in the Dodgers’ favor after they were shut out by D-backs ace Corbin Burnes for the first five innings. With two on, two outs and the Dodgers desperately looking for an answer against Burnes, Hernandez got a 1-and-2 slider over the plate and deposited it 413 feet onto the netting beyond the center field wall.
The homer was Hernandez’s 10th of the season and injected life into what had been a tense, frustrated Dodger Stadium crowd.
The Dodgers managed just one hit through five innings against Burnes before finally coming alive in the sixth. Miguel Rojas led off with an infield single and Mookie Betts followed two batters later with a single through the left side. Burnes struck out Freddie Freeman and pulled within a strike of finishing Hernandez to quash the rally, but the 85 mph slider he intended to bury down and away instead stayed up over the plate, and Hernandez didn’t miss it.
Hernandez’s homer made a winner of May, who delivered six sharp innings with five hits and one run allowed, one walk and eight strikeouts. The 27-year-old right-hander allowed a leadoff home run to Ketel Marte in the fourth, but that was his only blemish in a dominant performance.
May struck out four of the first seven batters he faced to set the tone immediately and kept the Diamondbacks off-balance all night. He recorded at strikeout in every inning, got multiple swings and misses with all four of his pitches and sat at least half a mile per hour above his season average on every offering.
The one time he ran into a jam with runners on the corners and one out in the sixth, he induced a foul pop-up and weak ground ball to get out of it.
May departed with the Dodgers trailing 1-0 and was initially in line to be the hard-luck loser of a pitchers’ duel with Burnes, but Hernandez changed that with one swing.
Tanner Scott, one night after blowing a save, retired the side in order in the ninth to finish it and give the NL West-leading Dodgers (31-19) their 18th come-from-behind win of the season.
After going 2-5 to open their homestand, the Dodgers finished with an extra-inning rally to beat the D-backs in the middle game of the series and, thanks to Hernandez, another late rally to win the finale and take the series.
Now, they head into a marquee weekend series against the New York Mets to begin a six-game road trip. Thanks to Hernandez, they’ll go in with momentum on their side.
More to come on this story.