{"id":155961,"date":"2025-07-06T11:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T11:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/155961\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T11:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T11:38:16","slug":"diaz-homers-and-hader-closes-it-out-as-astros-beat-ohtani-and-the-dodgers-6-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/155961\/","title":{"rendered":"Diaz homers and Hader closes it out as Astros beat Ohtani and the Dodgers 6-4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Yainer Diaz homered, Josh Hader got the last four outs for his major league-leading 25th save, and the Houston Astros spoiled Shohei Ohtani\u2019s 31st birthday, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-pitching-b8a435e48894293ebddd16cf55f566a7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ohtani made his fourth mound start<\/a> of the season, pitching two scoreless innings as he continues to work his way back from elbow surgery. He struck out the side in the second.<\/p>\n<p>Justin Wrobleski (4-3) relieved Ohtani to start the third, and that\u2019s when the Dodgers\u2019 problems started. Zack Short hit a two-run double as Houston scored four times in the inning. Diaz went deep leading off the fourth, his 11th of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Mookie Betts hit his 11th homer for the Dodgers in the first, and Miguel Rojas\u2019 two-run shot in the fourth pulled LA within 5-4.<\/p>\n<p>Jose Altuve led off the seventh with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n<p>Hader entered with two on and two out in the eighth and struck out pinch-hitter Esteury Ruiz. In the ninth, he allowed a leadoff single to Ohtani but retired Betts, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman to end it.<\/p>\n<p>Framber Valdez (10-4) struck out seven and allowed four runs in six innings.<\/p>\n<p>Key moment<\/p>\n<p>The Dodgers sent Michael Conforto to the plate to pinch-hit with two out in the eighth, and the Astros brought in Hader. Manager Dave Roberts replaced Conforto with Ruiz, who fanned on Hader\u2019s slider.<\/p>\n<p>Key stat<\/p>\n<p>The Astros have scored 24 runs in the first two games of the series. On Friday night, they handed the Dodgers their <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/astros-dodgers-score-f0bf505da6c7b3c00b7a7dd11df10bf8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">worst loss in the history of Dodger Stadium, 18-1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Up next<\/p>\n<p>Astros RHP Ryan Gusto (5-3, 4.90 ERA) will face the Dodgers\u2019 Emmet Sheehan (0-0, 2.25) for Sunday\u2019s series finale.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP MLB: <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Fhub%2Fmlb&amp;data=05%7C02%7Csportsdesk%40ap.org%7Cded2f1c4c6eb443eca7808ddbc32761b%7Ce442e1abfd6b4ba3abf3b020eb50df37%7C1%7C0%7C638873647130507584%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=Be%2BymQ%2BFZHgt5xKvjypCidlJL9uw4yWetQ7BVBs%2F8M4%3D&amp;reserved=0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Yainer Diaz homered, Josh Hader got the last four outs for his major league-leading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,1932,2178,1560,7907,9871,79,815,139,54,3211,817,1109,1529,57,111,8935,4,256,1526,5100,468,185,1567,5099,1535,5355,28890],"class_list":{"0":"post-155961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-ca-state-wire","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-dave-roberts","13":"tag-emmet-sheehan","14":"tag-esteury-ruiz","15":"tag-framber-valdez","16":"tag-freddie-freeman","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-houston-astros","19":"tag-houstonastros","20":"tag-jose-altuve","21":"tag-josh-hader","22":"tag-justin-wrobleski","23":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","24":"tag-michael-conforto","25":"tag-miguel-rojas","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-mlb-baseball","28":"tag-mookie-betts","29":"tag-ryan-gusto","30":"tag-shohei-ohtani","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-texas","33":"tag-tx-state-wire","34":"tag-will-smith","35":"tag-yainer-diaz","36":"tag-zack-short"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114806096213427652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}