EditorsNote: Adds comma to lede, slight addition to second graf; minor tweaks to 3rd, 4th grafs
Domingo German pitched six strong innings, and the New York Yankees hit three home runs off Clayton Kershaw in a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers that gave them two of the three victories in an interleague series between two of the best teams in baseball.
DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge and Mike Ford all hit home runs against Kershaw (13-3), as the Yankees went deep nine times in the series. Judge hit a home run in all three games as New York set a major league record for homers in any month, now sitting at 61 with five games left in August.
Kershaw had 12 strikeouts without a walk and held the Yankees to only four hits over seven innings, but the three home runs gave him 21 allowed on the season, his second most after the 23 he allowed in 2017.
Not only did LeMahieu hit a home run to lead off the game, but Dodgers leadoff hitter Joc Pederson hit his own first-inning home run. It was the fourth time in the major leagues this season that both leadoff hitters opened with a homer.
LeMahieu's home run was his 22nd of the season and the first of his career against Kershaw in 62 at-bats. Pederson hit his 26th of the season.
German (17-3) settled down from there, giving up one run on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts. The right-hander continues to lead baseball in victories.
Judge broke the 1-1 tie in the third inning with a home run to center field, his 16th on the season. Both LeMahieu and Judge hit home runs on slow curveballs from Kershaw, who allowed just two homers on the pitch previously this season and just 10 over the course his 12-year career before Sunday.
Kershaw gave up a sixth-inning homer to Ford, who entered in the third inning for Didi Gregorius, who was hit in the right shoulder by a Kershaw fastball in the opening inning. It was Ford's sixth home run of the season. He added an RBI double in the eighth, and Gio Urshela had an RBI single in the ninth.
The Yankees entered having lost five of their previous six games, but still started the day tied with the Houston Astros for the best record in the American League. The Dodgers, who have a baseball-best 86-46 record, lost a series for the second time in their last three tries.
--Field Level Media
