LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman have batted first, second or third for the Dodgers in every game they have started this season. That includes the All-Star Game on Tuesday, in which all three represented the Dodgers on their home field. They have been the team’s most valuable players when healthy.
They had not, however, hit a home run in the same game.
That changed Saturday.
Betts and Turner hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning, and Freeman hit another one late to seal the Dodgers’ 4-2 win over the San Francisco Giants before an announced crowd of 47,749 at Dodger Stadium.
Julio Urías (9-6) turned up the heat over six shutout innings. The left-hander allowed two hits to leadoff hitter Austin Slater, while the rest of the Giants’ lineup went 0 for 18 against Urías. He recorded five strikeouts and touched 96 mph with his four-seam fastball for only the third time in 19 starts.
Betts led off the game with a 12-pitch at-bat against former Dodger Alex Wood (6-8). He crushed the 11th pitch a few feet wide of the left-field foul pole before dumping a single into right field.
The Dodgers couldn’t cash in the run. In his next at-bat, Betts did the job himself. His 22nd home run of the season came on a 3-and-2 count and gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
With the hit, Betts also became the 17th active player with 200 career home runs.
Turner hit his 15th home run — also in a 3-and-2 count — on the very next at-bat.
Urías made the 2-0 lead stand up. He induced only seven swings and misses among his 91 pitches, but allowed relatively little hard contact. The final batter Urías faced, David Villar, looked at three pitches in the strike zone for the final out of the sixth inning.
Cody Bellinger singled and scored on a triple by Gavin Lux in the sixth inning. Freeman’s 15th home run of the season, against reliever John Brebbia in the seventh inning, gave the Dodgers a 4-0 lead.
Closer Craig Kimbrel had pitched on back-to-back nights to begin the four-game series, so right-hander Reyes Moronta and left-hander David Price tag-teamed the ninth inning. The Giants scored twice, but it was too little, too late.
Price was credited with his first save of the season when he caught Austin Slater looking at a backdoor sinker for strike three to end the game.
The Dodgers (63-30) have won seven consecutive games to open up a 10 1/2-game lead on the second-place Padres in the National League West. The Giants (48-46) are a distant third, 15 1/2 games out of first place.
