BALTIMORE -- Any lingering hangover from a rough road trip and a stunning Saturday night defeat left the ballpark with the first strike thrown to Shohei Ohtani on Sunday afternoon.
Ohtani connected for his 47th and 48th home runs in his first two at-bats of the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory over the Orioles in the series finale at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
In the process, he continued his pursuit of an MLB record.
Ohtani drove compatriot Tomoyuki Sugano's 1-0 offering over the center-field wall for his 12th leadoff home run of the season, tying a Dodgers franchise record set two years ago by current No. 2 hitter Mookie Betts.
The shot -- Ohtani’s first of the leadoff variety since Aug. 10 -- lifted him into a six-way tie for third on the all-time MLB list for most leadoff homers in a single season, three behind the record of 15 posted by Kyle Schwarber last year. Alfonso Soriano is second with 13 HRs in 2003.
More importantly for the Dodgers, Ohtani’s early power show, two RBIs from Betts and a strong outing from Clayton Kershaw helped snap a five-game slide on a day they began with -- and maintained -- only a one-game lead over the Padres in the National League West.
“Obviously, [that’s] Shohei, right?” Betts said. “But it just shows the vibes were high today. We had really good energy today before the game. We had [Kershaw] taking the mound, so obviously we have a lot of confidence there. Shohei jump-starting it lets us know we’re fine.”
And the Dodgers erased some of the sting from one of the crazier moments of the MLB season on Saturday, when Yoshinobu Yamamoto got within one out of a no-hitter, only for the bullpen to collapse in a 4-3 walk-off loss, the second in as many nights.
“I do like the way that our guys weren’t downtrodden,” said manager Dave Roberts. “We were kind of up, looking forward to playing a ballgame, to win a game. And that’s a tell that you have confidence still in the room.”
In the third inning, Ohtani sent the second strike Sugano dared to throw him a Statcast-projected 399 feet to a similar spot over the wall, completing his 23rd career multihomer game before the entire Orioles order even had a chance to hit.
Betts followed with his own homer to left off Sugano to stake the Dodgers to a 3-0 lead after three innings.
Ohtani completed the game by reaching base all five times he stepped to the plate, the last three on walks.
Per Elias, the series vs. Baltimore was the first series of three or more games in MLB history where at least one Japanese-born starter -- Ohtani included -- took the bump for all three games.
Ohtani’s twin shots off Sugano also recalled the 2012 Nippon Professional Baseball draft, when both were first-round selections. Ohtani went to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Sugano to the Yomiuri Giants. The pair faced each other only once in Japan, when Ohtani went 2-for-3 with a double on June 10, 2015.
Sugano departed in the fourth inning on Sunday after taking Hyeseong Kim’s line drive off his right foot/ankle.
Betts added his second RBI of the night and fourth of the series on a ninth-inning single. In 28 games since Aug. 4, he has raised his slash line from .231/.302/.355 to .253/.323/.390.
“It’s been pretty good, if you just kind of step back and look at it,” Betts said. “You can take a step back, take a peek at it, but [you] still have to be one at-bat at a time, one pitch at a time, stay in the moment.”
Kershaw (10-2) allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings in his first career start at Camden Yards, the second run coming home after Edgardo Henriquez’s entrance to complete the sixth.
The 37-year-old struck out a season-high eight while allowing four hits and a walk to leave his ERA nearly unchanged at 3.27 in his seventh consecutive start of at least five innings.
Justin Wrobleski pitched out of trouble in the seventh before striking out the side in the eighth. Jack Dreyer fanned two in the ninth for his third save.
“I wanted to get through six there,” Kershaw said. “I made two bad pitches there the last two sliders, so [it’s] frustrating not to get out of that. But I thought overall it was a decent day stuff-wise, and the guys in the back of the ‘pen picked me up.”