Dodgers Open at Home, Flash Hardware and Beat Arizona 8-2

The Los Angeles Dodgers opened their home schedule in familiar fashion Thursday—by showing off hardware and then reminding everyone why they keep collecting it.

Before first pitch, Miguel Rojas and Freddie Freeman cruised onto the field in a convertible, World Series trophies from 2024 and 2025 in hand, with Will Ferrell behind the wheel. Subtle? Not exactly. Effective? Definitely.

A few innings later, the Dodgers added a more current highlight.

Trailing early, Los Angeles flipped the game in the fifth inning thanks to Andy Pages, who turned a tight at-bat into a three-run homer that traveled an estimated 400 feet and, more importantly, flipped a 2-0 deficit into a lead they wouldn’t give back. It capped a rally built on persistence—three of the first four hits that inning came with two strikes, suggesting the lineup had little interest in making things easy.

Zac Gallen had been in control early for the Arizona Diamondbacks, cruising through four scoreless innings before things unraveled quickly. By the time Shohei Ohtani worked a walk to end Gallen’s night, the Dodgers had seized momentum—and didn’t bother giving it back.

They added on in a way that felt both routine and slightly excessive. Freddie Freeman walked, Will Smith followed with a hit, and a defensive miscue allowed another run to score. By then, the inning had the feel of one that could have been avoided, which is usually when it gets worse.

It did.

In the seventh, Los Angeles piled on four more runs, highlighted by Smith’s two-run homer and contributions throughout the lineup, including a debut RBI from Kyle Tucker. The scoreboard read 8-2, which felt about right given how the middle innings played out.

Lost somewhere between the offense and the pregame parade was a solid outing from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who allowed two runs over six innings while striking out six. His only real mistake came in the fourth, when Geraldo Perdomo followed a single from Corbin Carroll with a two-run homer that briefly gave Arizona the lead.

Pages wasn’t finished contributing, either. In the seventh, he made a full-extension diving catch in center field, the kind of play that looks better in slow motion but counts just the same in real time. It also helped keep the bullpen’s night pleasantly uneventful.

The Dodgers are, once again, off to a winning start. For a team chasing a third straight title, it qualifies as both expected and mildly ominous for the rest of the league.