LOS ANGELES — Yainer Diaz homered, Josh Hader got the last four outs for his major league-leading 25th save, and the Houston Astros spoiled Shohei Ohtani’s 31st birthday, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4, on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
Ohtani made his fourth mound start of the season, pitching two scoreless innings as he continues to work his way back from elbow surgery. He struck out the side in the second.
Justin Wrobleski (4-3) relieved Ohtani to start the third, and that’s when the Dodgers’ problems started. Zack Short hit a two-run double as Houston scored four times in the inning. Diaz went deep leading off the fourth, his 11th of the season.
Mookie Betts hit his 11th homer for the Dodgers in the first, and Miguel Rojas’ two-run shot in the fourth pulled LA within 5-4.
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Jose Altuve led off the seventh with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly.
Hader entered with two on and two out in the eighth and struck out pinch-hitter Esteury Ruiz. In the ninth, he allowed a leadoff single to Ohtani but retired Betts, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman to end it.
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Framber Valdez (10-4) struck out seven and allowed four runs in six innings.
The Dodgers sent Michael Conforto to the plate to pinch-hit with two out in the eighth, and the Astros brought in Hader. Manager Dave Roberts replaced Conforto with Ruiz, who fanned on Hader’s slider.
The Astros have scored 24 runs in the first two games of the series. On Friday night, they handed the Dodgers their worst loss in the history of Dodger Stadium, 18-1.
The Astros had not announced a starter for Sunday’s series finale against the Dodgers’ Emmet Sheehan (0-0. 2.25 ERA). In Sacramento, Willy Adames had three hits and four RBIs to back a strong start by Logan Webb and the San Francisco Giants beat the Athletics, 7-2.
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Webb (8-6) gave up two runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings to move to 4-0 in five career starts against the Athletics. Randy Rodríguez got the final out in the seventh and Tyler Rogers and Spencer Bivens each pitched a scoreless inning to close it out as the Giants won for the third time in four games.
Luis Severino (2-10) walked Mike Yastrzemski to begin the game then hit Heliot Ramos with a pitch. One out later, he hit Matt Chapman to load the bases before Yastrzemski was forced out at home on Jung Hoo Lee’s grounder. Adames singled up the middle for a 2-0 lead.
