Dodgers walk their way past Angels for 4th consecutive win

ANAHEIM — It really was a walk in the park for the Dodgers on Saturday night.

The game was a 1-0 pitchers’ duel between Angels ace José Soriano and Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski through five innings. But it got weird after that. The Dodgers had just three hits through the first seven innings but walked nine times in the game and scored nine runs in the final two innings against the Angels’ bullpen – five on RBIs by Shohei Ohtani – ultimately handing the Angels their latest humiliation, a 15-2 rout.

For the Dodgers (28-18), it was an enjoyable romp to their fourth consecutive win.

But for the Angels (16-30), it was an all-too-familiar outcome. They might have found an ace for their rotation in Soriano but are still searching for an offense. Over their past 25 games – a stretch that includes only five wins – they have scored an MLB-low 72 runs, two or fewer 16 times (including seven of their past eight, all losses).

“There’s no sugarcoating it, right? Twenty out of 25. It’s not great,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “But at the end of the day, we got to come back. We got to play tomorrow. We got to get ready to play. Forget about this game and move on.”

A rare bright side, though, is the breakout season Soriano has been having. He allowed just one hit in the first five innings on Saturday – a first-inning single by Freddie Freeman that helped set up a sacrifice fly by Will Smith – and retired 16 of 17 after that.

Ohtani grounded out to start the sixth inning. Soriano threw 23 pitches to the next five Dodgers’ batters. Only six found the strike zone. The Dodgers swung just four times (two misses and two fouls). Four walks and a hit batter added two runs to the Dodgers’ total. When reliever Chase Silseth replaced Soriano, he forced in another run when he hit Teoscar Hernandez with a pitch. Alex Call followed with a ground ball through the left side of the infield for a two-run single and a five-run inning.

“Guys are just watching the game, watching him kind of fall behind guys,” said Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, who started the sixth-inning walkathon. “We really stuck to our approach there. Nobody was trying to be the hero. That guy is not someone you come in and slug him off the mound. You have to take your hits when you get them.

“That was really the only inning where he kind of lost the zone. So good job to us for not chasing him around.”

Suzuki agreed, crediting the Dodgers for making life miserable for Soriano that inning.

“I mean, it was close pitches. They just weren’t chasing,” the Angels’ manager said. “And that’s what they do a good job over there of, zoning in and making you throw the ball over the plate.”

With both Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow sidelined, Wrobleski’s status in the rotation has become more secure. Starts like Saturday’s are ensuring that. He outpitched Soriano for five innings, holding the Angels scoreless thanks in part to a diving catch by center fielder Andy Pages that ended the fourth inning with a runner on third and the game still 1-0.

“I thought it was a hit, and then I thought he might get there, and then I was like, ‘Oh he’s going to try’ and then he dove and he caught it and I was like ‘That was the coolest thing ever,’” Wrobleski recounted. “Awesome.”

The Angels got to Wrobleski in the sixth inning, stringing together an infield single from Zach Neto, a double by Jorge Soler and a two-run double by Jo Adell. It is only the second time in seven starts that Wrobleski has yielded multiple runs. But those two have come in his most recent starts, plumping his ERA as a starter up to 2.12.

Wrobleski found his way through the rest of that inning without further damage, completing at least six innings for the sixth consecutive start.

“That’s what he does, is just go out there and go after guys, competes,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

After that, the Angels did what they are wont to do.

The Dodgers scored four runs in the eighth inning, including a two-run triple by Ohtani that bounced off the netting in foul territory down the right-field line. Ohtani kept going and scored on an error by Adell on the relay.

The Angels challenged the call, hoping for fan interference and a ground-rule double. They lost that too.

“That was a tough one, obviously,” Suzuki said. “Before the nets were (extended) down the line, that ball bounced into the stands, and it’s two bases. But we challenged. We thought maybe a fan might have hit it in, and they didn’t, obviously. So, you know, unfortunate.”

Things stayed unfortunate for the Angels from there. Betts followed with a home run and the Dodgers scored five more times in a ninth inning featuring another Angels error and a three-run double by Ohtani.

“Yeah, I don’t know. He was in complete control,” Roberts said of the change in direction the game took when Soriano lost the strike zone in the sixth inning. “We couldn’t manage his sinker-changeup-slider mix. Weren’t seeing him really well. The lefties weren’t seeing him well. He was just in a good rhythm until he wasn’t.”

The loss was just the Angels’ third in 10 starts by Soriano this season – but they are 9-27 when anyone else starts.