HOUSTON (AP) — Shohei Ohtani allowed his first two home runs of the season to Christian Walker and Braden Shewmake, and Peter Lambert pitched seven strong innings to give the Houston Astros a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
Lambert (2-2) allowed three hits and walked four with four strikeouts in his longest outing of the season. Bryan King gave up a run in the eighth before pitching a scoreless ninth for his third save.
Walker
sent Ohtani’s first pitch of the second inning to the train tracks atop left field to make it 1-0. It was Walker’s 30th career home run against the Dodgers.
There was one out in the second when Shewmake hit a fastball from Ohtani into the seats in left field to extend the lead to 2-0. Shewmake, who had two hits, was a late addition to the lineup after Carlos Correa was scratched with a left ankle injury.
Ohtani (2-2) permitted four hits and two runs with eight strikeouts in seven innings.
Alex Call led off the eighth with a double and scored on a two-out single by Kyle Tucker to cut the lead to one.
The Dodgers loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning, but Miguel Rojas grounded into a force out to allow Lambert to escape the jam.
Right fielder Cam Smith robbed Will Smith of extra bases with a a leaping catch near the warning track for the third out of the fifth inning.
The Astros had a chance to add to the lead in the bottom of the inning when they had runners on first and third with two outs. But Ohtani struck out Jose Altuve to end the inning.
Dodgers RHP Tyler Glasnow (3-0, 2.56 ERA) opposes RHP Lance McCullers (2-2, 6.32) when the series concludes Wednesday.
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