TORONTO (AP) — Dalton Rushing hit two solo home runs for his first career multihomer game and the Los Angeles Dodgers went deep five times to rout the Toronto Blue Jays 14-2 on Monday night in a rematch of the 2025 World Series.
Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman each hit a two-run homer, and Shohei Ohtani added a solo shot.
Los Angeles beat the Blue Jays in last year’s Fall Classic for its second consecutive championship, winning Game 7 at Toronto in 11 innings.
After scoring 31 runs in a three-game sweep at Washington, the Dodgers piled up 17 hits against the slumping Blue Jays. Rushing went 4 for 4 and also scored after he was hit by a pitch.
Rushing connected on Tommy Nance’s first pitch of the seventh, then went deep again off Spencer Miles in the eighth.
Hernández went 2 for 5 with a walk and drove in four runs, while Freeman was 2 for 4 with a walk and three RBIs. Kyle Tucker had a hit, walked and scored three times, and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Andy Pages had two hits, including a two-run double.
Blue Jays catcher Tyler Heineman came on to pitch the ninth and retired the side in order, Toronto’s only 1-2-3 inning of the game.
The Blue Jays lost their fifth straight and saw right-hander and three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (1-1) leave after two innings. The 41-year-old allowed two runs and two hits, walked one and struck out a pair.
Hernández homered off Scherzer in the first. Freeman drilled a 438-foot shot off Josh Fleming in the third.
Ohtani homered off Joe Mantiply in the sixth, his third in four games.
Making his first start of the season, Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski (1-0) allowed one run and two hits in five innings.
Up next
World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-1, 3.00 ERA) is scheduled to start Tuesday against Blue Jays RHP Kevin Gausman (0-0, 0.75).
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb