Shohei Ohtani homers, Justin Wrobleski pitches gem as Dodgers blank Rays

For the first 5 ½ innings on Tuesday night, there was a whole lot of nothing at Dodger Stadium.Then, Shohei Ohtani came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth and put a long-awaited jolt into the game.On a first-pitch, center-cut cutter from Tampa Bay right-hander Drew Rasmussen, Ohtani sent a no-doubt home run sailing deep to center field, opening the scoring in the Dodgers’ eventual 1-0, series-clinching win.“Old-school baseball game, 1-0,” manager Dave Roberts said.“Really fun baseball game to be part of.”The blast was Ohtani’s 15th home run of the season, his seventh in the last 17 games, and his fifth in the last nine.It was the latest sign that he is rediscovering his power stroke, after a stretch of 39 games from April 13 to May 26 in which he hit only three long balls.“He’s seeing the baseball well, swinging at good pitches,” Roberts said.

“And when he uses the big part of the field, there’s just no one better.”More importantly, it also gave the Dodgers some much-needed run support on a night Justin Wrobleski turned in a scoreless six-inning start.Up to that point, Wrobleski and Rasmussen had been dueling, keeping either team from even sniffing an opening run.After Ohtani’s home run, the rest of the night flew by similarly, with the Dodgers bullpen producing three scoreless innings in a second-straight game –– one each from Will Klein, Kyle Hurt and Tanner Scott, who combined to face the minimum nine batters –– to sew up a shutout that took just 1 hour, 52 minutes, the Dodgers’ quickest nine-inning game since 1992.“Under two hours is pretty cool, especially when we’ve got a noon game tomorrow,” Wrobleski said.

“That’s good for the boys.”The Dodgers (47-27) don’t have the best winning percentage in the majors.But after the Atlanta Braves had their game Tuesday postponed by rain, the club does now own the title of winningest team in MLB, surpassing the Braves’ win total with their 47th victory.Tuesday al...