{"id":255405,"date":"2026-04-07T07:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/255405\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T07:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:54:15","slug":"dodgers-explode-for-14-runs-in-blowout-win-over-toronto-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/255405\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers explode for 14 runs in blowout win over Toronto Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The teams were the same. The venues were the same. But the clash between the Dodgers<\/a> and Blue Jays on Monday at Rogers Centre was far from the roller coaster of Game 7 of the World Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And the Dodgers\u2019 most notable performance came from a young catcher who wasn\u2019t on the World Series roster last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese fans, sadly, didn\u2019t want to see us come to town,\u201d catcher Dalton Rushing<\/a> said after hitting two home runs in the Dodgers\u2019 14-2 win<\/a>. \u201cAnd rightfully so, after what we did tonight. But yeah, I think we all just look forward to carrying it over to tomorrow and leave our mark in Toronto once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rushing, giving Game 7 hero Will Smith<\/a> a day off, recorded the first multi-homer, four-hit game of his major league career.<\/p>\n

It was Rushing\u2019s third start of the season and first time playing on consecutive days. The 25-year-old also homered Sunday in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot from last year,\u201d Rushing said. \u201cLast year, mentally, I was in a tough spot playing the role that I was, and just kind of trying to figure out how you play that role. And this year, I have a little better understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to show up and have a game like that tonight. You\u2019re not going to show up and get two hits every game, whether you\u2019re playing every day or you\u2019re playing every three days. And that was maybe it was just a pill I had to swallow a little bit. I\u2019m just glad I could see results tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a blowout, there are always contributions from all over the lineup.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani celebrates in the dugout after hitting a home run in the sixth inning against Toronto on Monday.<\/p>\n

(Mark Blinch \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Two players with ties to Canada had the Dodgers\u2019 big swings early on. Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, who escaped the boos during lineup introductions because of the six seasons he spent with the Blue Jays, and Freddie Freeman, who has played for the Canadian national team, each hit two-run home runs.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s home run gave the Dodgers (8-2) the lead in an action-packed first inning that was punctuated by Blue Jays fans\u2019 boos and cheers. They clearly hadn\u2019t forgotten the heartbreak the Dodgers dealt them in an instant-classic Game 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a cool place to play,\u201d Dodgers starting pitcher Justin Wrobleski said, acknowledging he heard the boos as he warmed up. \u201cI\u2019d be lying if I said I didn\u2019t expect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the bottom half of the first, Wrobleski was haunted by a leadoff walk. He retired the next two batters, with the help of a leaping catch against the wall by right fielder Kyle Tucker<\/a>. But all it took was a sharp single through the left side of the infield from Kazuma Okamoto and a blooper into shallow right from Ernie Clement to push a run across and cut the Dodgers\u2019 lead in half.<\/p>\n

Freeman\u2019s two-run shot in the third brought the momentum back to the Dodgers. Over the next three innings, a sacrifice fly from Tucker, a solo homer from Shohei Ohtani<\/a> and a two-run double from Andy Pages allowed the Dodgers to pull away.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Rushing hit the first of his two homers in the seventh, lifting a back-foot slider into the stands. The rally continued with Freeman and Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019 third and fourth RBIs of the night, respectively.<\/p>\n

Rushing\u2019s second homer, off a low curveball in the eighth, capped his statement game.<\/p>\n

\u201cA curveball\/slider down and in, and to stay through it and to hold it and backspin that ball, it\u2019s very hard to do,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cUsually that\u2019s a topspin hook. And he\u2019s feeling good and staying through baseballs, getting a lot more trust. We were able to give Will a day off. … That\u2019s huge for us going down the stretch and throughout the course of the year. \u201d<\/p>\n

The game provided some flashbacks to the World Series. Wrobleski, who limited the Blue Jays to that one run through five innings in his first start of the season, and reliever Will Klein, who threw two scoreless innings, both returned to the Rogers Centre after cutting their teeth in the postseason last year.<\/p>\n

\"Teoscar <\/p>\n

Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez, right, celebrates with Andy Pages after hitting a two-run home run in the first inning of the Dodgers\u2019 14-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.<\/p>\n

(Mark Blinch \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In the bottom of the second inning, Pages and Hern\u00e1ndez converged under a fly ball in left field. But they did not reenact Pages\u2019 World Series Game 7 catch, which Pages pulled off then despite colliding with Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez. On Monday, Pages called off Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez loud and clear, extending his arm as an extra precaution.<\/p>\n

As the game turned into a blowout, however, it began to feel nothing like the 11-inning nail-biter these two teams last played in November.<\/p>\n

The intensity faded from the crowd until a slight rebound in the ninth inning when middle infielder Miguel Rojas pitched for the Dodgers. The Blue Jays (4-6) managed one more run.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the crowd was capacity, they were excited, looking forward to seeing us and seeing this rematch,\u201d manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said. \u201cIt was good to see we took them out of it early.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The teams were the same. The venues were the same. But the clash between the Dodgers and Blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6132,47781,113099,10952,426,10450,4203,2321,48,52,51,5814,47,50,49,4123,1024,113098,57,113097,24573],"class_list":{"0":"post-255405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-andy-pages","9":"tag-blowout-win","10":"tag-boo","11":"tag-catch","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-first-game","14":"tag-freddie-freeman","15":"tag-hernandez","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-lead","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-max-muncy","24":"tag-monday","25":"tag-solo-homer","26":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","27":"tag-two-run-home-run","28":"tag-world-series-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}