Trayce Thompson established career highs of three homers and eight RBIs to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a crushing 10-1 victory over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night.
Thompson hit a grand slam in the first inning, belted a three-run shot in the fifth and capped the power display with a solo shot in the eighth. It was just the second multi-homer game of his career.
J.D. Martinez also went deep for the first time as a member of the Dodgers.
Clayton Kershaw (1-0) gave up one run and four hits in six innings for the Dodgers. He struck out nine and walked none.
Christian Walker homered for Arizona. Walker had two of the Diamondbacks’ five hits.
Madison Bumgarner (0-1) gave up five runs and four hits in four innings. He walked four and struck out two.
Martinez went 2-for-3 and scored twice and Miguel Vargas scored twice for the Dodgers, who have won two of three against the Diamondbacks entering Sunday’s series finale.
Thompson is the first Dodgers’ batter to homer three times in a game since Mookie Betts on Aug. 13, 2020 against the San Diego Padres.
Los Angeles pushed across a run in the first inning on Chris Taylor’s sacrifice fly. Bumgarner then walked Vargas to load the bases. Thompson stepped into the box for the first time this season and launched an 0-1 changeup over the fence in center to make it 5-0.
Walker led off the second with a homer to left for Arizona’s lone tally.
In the fifth, there were two on and two outs when Thompson drilled a 2-0 fastball from Kevin Ginkel over the fence in left-center to make it 8-1.
Martinez smacked the first pitch of the seventh from Cole Sulser over the wall in right-center field to increase the lead to eight.
Thompson finished his assault with a leadoff blast off Carlos Vargas in the eighth that sailed deep into the bleachers in left center.
The 32-year-old Thompson entered the game with 39 career homers, including 13 in 74 games for the Dodgers last season.
–Field Level Media