LOS ANGELES – On the first of Shohei Ohtani’s two home runs Sunday, the wait appeared to be the hardest part.
Ohtani blasted a two-run home run in the first inning on a slow curveball and the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep by getting past left-hander Max Fried and the Atlanta Braves in a 5-1 victory.
Ohtani then added the exclamation point with a 464-foot blast in the eighth inning for his first two-homer game in a Dodgers uniform. It was the 17th multi-homer game of his career.
It also was the third time this season Ohtani has delivered home runs in consecutive games and the first time he did it against the same team. He also matched a career high with four hits and his first with the Dodgers after a three-hit performance Saturday.
Ohtani’s lone homer Saturday allowed him to pass manager Dave Roberts for most in franchise history from a Japanese-born player. His two Sunday gave him a team-lead 10 home runs
The “oohs” began almost immediately from a sold-out crowd of 52,733 as Ohtani waited on a 75-mph rainbow curve from Fried in the first inning and launched it 412 into the netting beyond the center-field wall. He was all smiles as teammate Freddie Freeman greeted him at home plate after Mookie Betts scored in front of him.
The power was slow to come at the start of the season, but the Ohtani the Dodgers envisioned after offering a 10-year, $700-million contract has arrived. Ohtani went without a long ball in his first eight games, but has his 10 in the last 27 contests.
His three-strikeout game Tuesday at Arizona, that preceded a day of rest Wednesday, is all but a memory.
In the eighth inning, Ohtani sent the first pitch from Braves reliever A.J. Minter deep into the seats on the left-field side of straightaway center.
Yet Ohtani alone could not make the series sweep happen. Teoscar Hernandez added a two-run home run in the sixth inning and veteran left-hander James Paxton (4-0) made the offense stand up by allowing one run through 6 2/3 innings.
Hernandez even chipped in with his defense, throwing out Matt Olson at second base after the Braves standout tried to stretch his hit off the right-field wall into a double.
Paxton stayed in the strike zone, for the most part, allowing two walks after he entered with an MLB-leading 22 free passes. It led to Paxton’s longest outing of the season and his longest since going 7 2/3 innings for the Boston Red Sox against the Toronto Blue Jays on June 30 last season.
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Blake Treinen made his season debut with a scoreless eighth inning. It was just his sixth outing since 2022 after two years of recovery from a shoulder injury and a line drive off the chest in spring training that caused two broken ribs and a bruised lung.
The bonus was that the victory came all while giving Max Muncy a day of rest with Fried on the mound, following his first-career three home-run game Saturday. The Dodgers hit eight home runs in the last two games against the Braves.
Fried (2-1) was pitching after he delivered a complete game and six no-hit innings in his previous two starts.