Dodgers rout Diamondbacks to win NL West

Taking the lead in the second inning to not only never relinquish it but not even be threatened in an 8-0 win, the Dodgers secured the top spot in the NL West once again. Evidently, the Dodgers’ offense realized its injustice towards Yoshinobu Yamamoto throughout the year, consistently providing him with subpar run support, and wanted to do something about it. It’s the type of thing you can’t make up all at once, but the Dodgers played as though they could, showering Yamamoto with runs and more runs, wanting no part of a close affair in this division-clinching win.

Any plans of a successful bullpen game from Arizona crumbled with Nabil Crismatt, who followed Jalen Beeks in the second inning. Crismatt was the main man on the receiving end of this slugfest from Los Angeles, which brought four home runs in the opening four innings, three of them against the changeup-throwing right-hander.

Although Freddie Freeman was the main attraction with his second multi-homer game of the year, it’s unavoidable to focus on Shohei Ohtani, not only for what he did, but also for how he did it. Making sure to stamp his name in the list of players who went deep, Ohtani got to number 54 on the year, tying a franchise record he set himself last season. The manner in which he hit his home run was very Ohtani-esque, going down below the zone to golf one of Crismatt’s changeups out towards the right-field pool.

The National League’s premier slugger, run scorer, and also a damn fine pitcher, Ohtani is hitting his way towards another MVP trophy, one that would potentially be his third in a row and fourth in the last five years.

Regardless of how awesome Ohtani is, though, the Dodgers will need more than just him carrying the load on the offense, and this game was yet another example of how the lineup can do that. Before Ohtani’s homer, back when Los Angeles led 2-0 after Freeman and Andy Pages went deep back-to-back in the second, the Dodgers had a bases-loaded opportunity for Ohtani, and he didn’t come through, striking out swinging. A couple of months ago, that play probably would have resulted in the end of the threat, but with Mookie Betts back on track, Los Angeles doubled its lead with a Betts two-run single right after.

Having a reliable hitter behind Ohtani is of enormous value heading into the postseason. Witnessing the Betts turnaround might just be the single most encouraging thing about the Dodgers in the last month or so.

On the pitching side of things, Yoshinobu Yamamoto took full advantage of the deflating mood an early disadvantage can bring to an offense, as Arizona trailed by four in the second and eight in the fourth. The Dodgers starter made the most out of a rare night of great run support for him and completely shut down the D-backs, tossing six terrific scoreless frames. Yamamoto managed to reach over 200 strikeouts with his seven in the game, taking him to 201 on the year. If that doesn’t feel like so much, consider that the last time a Dodger pitcher had 200 strikeouts, it was Walker Buehler back in 2021 with 212.

Not to be overlooked as well is the fact that this win took the Dodgers to a 7-6 record against the Diamondbacks, securing a winning campaign against the divisional rival that gave this team the most issues in 2025.

Thursday particulars

Home runs: Freddie Freeman 2 (23), Andy Pages (27), Shohei Ohtani (54)

WP —-Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8): 6 IP, 4 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts

LP — Jalen Beeks (5-3): 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 strikeout

Up next

Two division winners will battle it out in the final regular-season series of the year as the Dodgers make the trip to Seattle. The difference between the Dodgers and the M’s is that Seattle is still fighting for the best possible seed in the American League, while the Dodgers are locked as the worst division winner from the National League side. Emmet Sheehan will start on Friday at 6:40 p.m. against a starter yet to be named.