Shohei Ohtani homered for his 1,000th career hit and struck out a season-high eight in four innings on the mound, but the St. Louis Cardinals rallied late to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 on Wednesday.
Jordan Walker had three hits for the Cardinals, including an RBI single that tied the score with two outs in the eighth. St. Louis took a 4-3 lead on the same play when rookie third baseman Alex Freeland made a costly throwing error.
Lars Nootbaar added a run-scoring double off reliever Brock Stewart in the ninth.
Walker was a late addition to the starting lineup. He replaced Willson Contreras, who had a stomach bug.
JoJo Romero (4-3) earned the win with a scoreless inning of relief. Riley O’Brien got four outs for his first major league save.
Trailing by a run in the bottom of the third inning, Ohtani helped his own cause with a go-ahead two-run homer that also was his 1,000th career hit. He joins Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui as the third Japanese-born player to reach 1,000 career MLB hits.
Up Next
The Dodgers will have an off day on Thursday before hosting the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game series over the weekend. The Blue Jays are coming off of an offensive explosion at Coors Field where they combined to score 45 runs on 63 hits in their three-game sweep of the Rockies.