HOUSTON (AP) — Andy Pages set career highs with three homers and six RBIs and Shohei Ohtani broke out of a slump with two hits to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 12-2 rout of the Houston Astros Wednesday.
Starter Tyler Glasnow allowed a solo home run in the first inning before leaving the game with low back pain before the second. Jack Dreyer (2-3) took over and pitched two scoreless innings for the win as one of six relievers who stepped in to hold
Houston to one run after Glasnow's early departure.
Pages connected on a three-run homer off Lance McCullers Jr. (2-3) in a five-run third inning that made it 6-1 and he added a two-run shot in the fifth off Jason Alexander.
His solo shot to start the ninth inning came off catcher César Salazar, who moved from behind the plate to the mound for the ninth with the game out of hand and Houston's bullpen depleted.
Ohtani snapped a 0 for 18 skid with a double in the third inning and added an RBI single in the fifth. His hitless streak was the second longest of his career behind an 0 for 19 stretch in 2020.
Glasnow allowed a home run to leadoff hitter Brice Matthews before retiring the next three batters, with two strikeouts to end the first. He returned to the mound to warm up before the second inning but appeared to be in discomfort after throwing a pitch and signaled to the dugout before exiting the game.
Glasnow’s strikeout of Yordan Alvarez in the first inning was the 1,000th of his career.
McCullers allowed four hits and six runs in 2 2/3 innings. He walked three and threw three wild pitches on a day he threw just 39 of 70 pitches for strikes.
The Dodgers tied it in the second when a run scored with two outs on McCullers' wild pitch.
Alex Freeland walked with no outs in the third before Ohtani's double. Freeland scored on McCullers's wild pitch and another wild pitch sent Ohtani home for a 3-1 lead.
McCullers walked Freddie Freeman and then Kyle Tucker with one out. There were two outs in the inning when Pages hit a sinker off the wall in left field to push the lead to 6-1.
Both teams are off Thursday before the Dodgers host the Braves on Friday night and Houston opens a series at Cincinnati that night.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
