Bobby Miller spun a gem and was backed by power swings from Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández to help lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Miller struck out the side in the first inning on just 15 pitches and didn’t allow a baserunner until Nolan Gorman’s two-out single in the fourth inning. The right-hander went set a career high with 11 strikeouts through six scoreless innings.
Prior to Friday night, Miller’s career high in strikeouts was nine, set Sept. 26, 2023, against the Colorado Rockies. Miller didn’t face any stress against the Cardinals until sixth, when a single and walk put two on. He escaped the small jam by getting Gorman swinging to end the inning.
The performance supported Miller’s comments from earlier in the week that he was trending in the right direction heading into the regular season.
He exited with a comfortable lead thanks to big swings from Betts and Hernández. Betts jumpstarted the offense with a solo home run in the first inning and Hernández followed suit in the second. Hernández then added onto his night with a three-run home run in the fourth inning.
The home runs were Hernández’s first with the Dodgers and the multi-homer game was the 17th of his career.
For Betts, he became the new Dodgers franchise leader with 29 leadoff home runs. Overall, Betts has slugged 49 leadoff homers, good for fifth place in MLB history. Rickey Henderson holds the MLB record with 81 career leadoff home runs.
Miguel Rojas gave the Dodgers four homers on the night with his line-drive solo shot in the seventh inning. Rojas didn’t hit his first home run of the season last year until Aug. 2.
Dodgers bullpen
Michael Grove followed Miller with an opportunity to provide the team with a second consecutive three-inning save. He got through seventh but exited with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.
Ryan Brasier allowed all three inherited runners to score before he managed to get through the frame. Evan Phillips then entered in the ninth inning for his second save of the season.
The last time the Dodgers had back-to-back games with a three-inning save remained July 25-26, 1987.
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