Clayton Kershaw got his 3,000th strikeout and Freddie Freeman capped a three-run ninth inning by singled in Shohei Ohtani, lifting the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Chicago White Sox 5-4 on Wednesday night.
Kershaw became the 20th pitcher to reach 3,000 when Vinny Capra took a slider for a called third strike for the final out of the sixth inning.
Los Angeles trailed 4-2 and hadn’t scored since the second inning when Michael Conforto singled and Tommy Edman and Hyesong Kim drew back-to-back walks from Grant Taylor (0-1) to open the ninth. Ohtani hit into a run-scoring forceout, Mookie Betts tied the score with a sacrifice fly off Steven Wilson and Freeman singled sharply to right.
Los Angeles won for the 14th time in 17 games and clinched its seventh straight series victory.
Andrew Benintendi had a two-out RBI single in the first. Will Smith tied the score in the bottom half against Sean Burke with his 11th homer and Andy Pages lead off the second with his 17th homer.
Austin Slater hit a two-run homer in the third for a 3-2 lead and Edgar Quero added a flare RBI single.
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy was injured while tagging out Michael A. Taylor in the sixth. Taylor was caught stealing as catcher Will Smith threw to Muncy, who tagged Taylor for the second out of the inning. Muncy sprawled on his back as a Dodgers athletic trainer came out to check on him. The team said he had left knee pain. A White Sox trainer also checked on Taylor, who sustained a bruised left trapezius in his back.
Kershaw threw a season-high 100 pitches, giving up four runs and nine hits in six innings. He struck out Miguel Vargas in the third and Lenyn Sosa in the fifth.
White Sox RHP Aaron Civale (1-4, 4.74 ERA) starts the series finale Thursday. Dodgers RHP Dustin May (4-5, 4.68) faces Chicago for the first time in his career.
Clayton Kershaw reaches 3,000 career strikeouts vs. White Sox
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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