- Philadelphia Phillies. Phillies hit a triple play and convert move not seen in nearly 100 years
- Los Angeles Dodgers. Shohei Ohtani can't stop embarrassing his former team with monster home runs
Shohei Ohtani continues to etch his name into the Los Angeles Dodgers' history books, showcasing his prowess yet again in Tuesday night's 4-3 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Ohtani's contributions, including a leadoff home run and a tiebreaking RBI single, were instrumental in the Dodgers' seventh win in their last nine games.
Ohtani is the MLB's home run leader
Ohtani wasted no time making an impact, driving a hanging curveball from Chris Flexen into the visitor's bullpen in right-center for his National League-leading 24th home run.
The blast, a Statcast-projected 376-foot shot, tied Ohtani with Dodgers legend Roy Campanella for the most consecutive games with an RBI in a single season since the stat became official in 1920.
"I just focused on getting a base hit,"Ohtani said through an interpreter.
His mindset paid off as he also walked and scored on Freddie Freeman's two-run homer in the third inning, then gave the Dodgers a 4-3 lead with a two-out RBI single in the fourth.
Freeman praised his teammate's performance, saying, "I don't know what more we can really say about him. We've said everything we can since he entered this league about what an amazing player he is. Sometimes you just got to step back and appreciate a player like this."
White Sox continue season struggles
The Dodgers, now 50-31 at the midpoint of their season, maintain their lead in the NL West.
Their opponents, the Chicago White Sox, have had a tougher journey.
The loss marked their sixth defeat in seven games, and they are now off to the worst 81-game start in franchise history with a 21-60 record.
Andrew Benintendi hit a two-run homer for the White Sox, contributing to their early three-run lead in the first inning.
However, the White Sox managed just five hits for the rest of the game.
Flexen, who fell to 2-7, allowed four runs and six hits over 5 2/3 innings and has yet to secure a win in his last nine starts.
"I thought I battled pretty decent but obviously it didn't put us in position to win,"Flexen said.
"A handful of walks, a couple home runs. Early lead, so pretty disappointed about it. Tough battle."
"It's been tough. It might look a lot uglier than it actually is," Benintendi commented on the White Sox's struggles.
"We've played a lot of one-run ballgames. We've put together one, two good weeks. But we've got 81 games left, just keep trucking, keep working on things, keep getting better."
The Dodgers will aim to complete the series sweep in the finale tomorrow at 8:10 PM ET.