LOS ANGELES – The early punch didn’t rattle the Dodgers. It barely registered.
Not on a night when Shohei Ohtani was setting the tone, when Emmet Sheehan was quietly correcting course, and when a deep, flexible roster again showed why the Dodgers look like the most complete team in baseball.
A 6–3 win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers are 11–3, the best record in the majors, and clinched yet another early-season series.
Ric Tapia - The Sporting Tribune
Emmet Sheehan #80 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches during the game against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium on April 11, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
And yet, it began with a jolt.
On the second pitch of the game, Sheehan left a 96-mph fastball over the heart of the plate. Brandon Nimmo didn’t miss, sending it over the center-field wall as Andy Pages turned to watch. Just like that, the Dodgers were trailing before many had settled into their seats.
But if that moment exposed anything, it was how little margin for error exists and how quickly this Dodgers lineup erases it. Ohtani answered almost immediately.
On the fourth pitch he saw from Jack Leiter, Ohtani hammered an 86-mph slider out to right, his first leadoff home run of the season and the 19th of his Dodgers tenure. It also extended his on-base streak to 45 games — a number that feels less like a hot stretch and more like a baseline for the two-way superstar.
After Will Smith singled and Freddie Freeman walked, Teoscar Hernández delivered the knockout blow of the frame — a 393-foot drive into the left-field pavilion on a changeup that never fooled him. Two swings, four runs, and complete control.
Leiter never recovered. The Dodgers forced long at-bats, ran up his pitch count to 70 by the third inning, and consistently dictated the tempo. Even a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity that produced just one run felt more like a footnote than a missed chance. The damage had already been done.
Meanwhile, Sheehan settled.
If Nimmo was the exception, and he emphatically was, everyone else looked overmatched. Nimmo accounted for all three Rangers' runs, finishing 3-for-3 with two home runs. The rest of the Rangers? Just 1-for-18 with six strikeouts.
That contrast defined Sheehan’s night.
He wasn’t perfect, but he was markedly better: six innings, four hits, three earned runs, one walk, six strikeouts on 77 pitches. More importantly, his fastball ticked up, something he said he cleaned up between starts, looked cleaner and more repeatable.
“Delivery wise, throwing wise, everything felt a lot better,” Sheehan said afterward.
For a Dodgers team that is effectively operating with six starters, that kind of progress matters. It’s not just about surviving innings, it’s about building reliability deeper into the staff.
From there, the bullpen took over and slammed the door.
Jack Dreyer struck out the side in the seventh, a sharp rebound after his struggles earlier in the week. Tanner Scott needed just nine pitches for a clean eighth. By the time Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia combined to finish the ninth, the Rangers hadn’t recorded a single hit against the bullpen.
That detail mattered as much as anything else: all four Ranger hits came against Sheehan. The bullpen was untouchable.
Dave Roberts opted not to use Edwin Díaz in the ninth after Friday’s blown save, citing both workload and a slight dip in velocity. Instead, he leaned into the depth that continues to define this roster.
The Dodgers even tacked on insurance in the eighth, Hernández doubled, and Pages drove him in with his MLB-leading 17th RBI. A small but telling sequence for a lineup that rarely lets games drift. That’s the theme through 14 games.
And now, with an 11–3 record and another series already secured, the Dodgers will hand the ball Sunday to Roki Sasaki with a chance to sweep.