Sasaki settles in, Hernández delivers career night in Dodgers win

MILWAUKEE — The Dodgers had spent the better part of two regular seasons getting pushed around by the Brewers. Bullied might have been the better word for it. 

Saturday night at American Family Field finally looked different.

The Dodgers answered back with a loud offensive performance, erupting late for an 11-3 victory over the Brewers that snapped their regular-season skid against Milwaukee and pushed them to 32-20, one game ahead of the Padres in the National League West.

And somehow, the night belonged equally to a lineup that exploded for 11 runs and a pitcher who nearly unraveled before the game ever settled in.

Because for one inning, the Roki Sasaki experiment looked dangerously close to another disaster.

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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field.

The Brewers ambushed the Dodgers’ right-hander immediately. The Brewers forced Sasaki into a grueling 35-pitch first inning filled with deep counts, scattered command and defensive chaos. Brice Turang opened the scoring with an RBI double to left that brought home Jackson Chourio. Moments later, Turang scored when Sasaki rushed a throw on a slow comebacker and fired it away for an error. Then Sal Frelick lined a single to center that scored Christian Yelich for a quick 3-0 deficit.

The matchup was always going to test Sasaki. The Brewers entered the night as one of baseball’s toughest teams to strike out, and early on they refused to chase anything. Sasaki’s fastball command drifted, several pitches missed badly out of the zone and it felt entirely possible Dave Roberts would need his bullpen before the middle innings.

Instead, Sasaki steadied himself.

And maybe, for the first time in weeks, showed why the Dodgers remain committed to riding through the turbulence.

After the ugly opening inning, Sasaki allowed only two more baserunners over his final four innings. He retired the last 10 hitters he faced and leaned heavily on a sharper slider-splitter combination and mixed in the forkball.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) reacts following the final out of the fifth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field. Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

His final line hardly reflected the panic of the first inning: five innings, four hits, three runs (two earned), two walks and four strikeouts on 89 pitches. He improved to 3-3 while lowering his ERA to 4.93.

It was messy. It was uneven. But it was growth.

And the Dodgers gave him exactly the kind of offensive rescue they desperately lacked the night before in Friday’s 5-1 loss.

The turnaround began in the fourth.

Freddie Freeman, who spent the evening looking nearly impossible to retire, opened the inning with an opposite-field double off Robert Gasser. The double  was the 561st double of Freeman’s career, moving him alone into 29th place on baseball’s all-time list, four behind Carlos Beltrán.

Andy Pages followed with an RBI double that cut the deficit to 3-1. Pages now has 43 RBI this season, continuing a breakout campaign that has become impossible to ignore.

Then came Teoscar Hernández.

The veteran outfielder had not homered off a left-handed pitcher all season entering the at-bat. That changed in one violent swing.

Hernández demolished a three-run homer off Gasser, flipping the game instantly and giving the Dodgers a 4-3 lead. It was his seventh home run of the season, but far more importantly, it ignited a lineup that never slowed down afterward.

By the end of the night, Hernández had authored one of the best offensive performances of his Dodgers career.

He drove in another run with a single in the eighth after Freeman and Pages opened the inning with walks. In the ninth, with Freeman and Will Smith aboard again, Hernández ripped a two-run hit to tie his career high with six RBI, the fourth six-RBI game of his career and his first since last June at Yankee Stadium.

The Dodgers kept piling on from there. Miguel Rojas dropped down a squeeze bunt that scored Kyle Tucker in the eighth. Santiago Espinal, filling in at third base for the injured Max Muncy, lined an RBI double in the ninth. Shohei Ohtani added an RBI single to right to cap the scoring and finish 2-for-5 with a walk, lifting his batting average to .276.

And while the offense grabbed headlines, the bullpen quietly continued making franchise history.

Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia (51) throws a pitch during the sixth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field.

Alex Vesia delivered a scoreless sixth inning to tie the Dodgers’ modern-era franchise record with 33 consecutive scoreless innings by a bullpen, matching a mark set in 1998. Kyle Hurt followed with a clean seventh to establish a new record at 34 straight innings. Tanner Scott pushed it to 35 in the eighth, surpassing even the 2023 Rays’ streak of 34 1/3 innings.

Jonathan Hernández closed the ninth, extending the streak to 36 consecutive scoreless innings dating back to May 12.

The longest bullpen scoreless streak since 1966 remains the Kansas City A’s with 44 innings. The Dodgers are suddenly within sight of it.

More importantly, they finally looked like themselves again.

The lineup was relentless. The bullpen was untouchable. Sasaki bent but recovered. And after spending too much time lately watching the Brewers dictate games, the Dodgers landed the punch Saturday night instead.

Now they hand the ball to Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sunday with a chance to win the series and keep control of first place in the division.