PHOENIX (AP) — Shohei Ohtani matched his career high with his 54th home run, Freddie Freeman went deep twice and the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their 12th NL West title in 13 years by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-0 Thursday.
Ohtani’s homer splashed into Chase Field’s swimming pool behind the right-center wall for a 6-0 lead in the fourth inning. The two-run shot gave him 101 RBIs for the season and matched his career-best home run total with the World Series champion Dodgers last year. He has scored a big league-high 144 runs.
Los Angeles, which clinched a postseason berth last week, won its fourth straight division title.
Arizona (80-79) fell 1 1/2 games behind the New York Mets (81-77) for the final NL wild card spot and also is one game back of Cincinnati (81-78). The Diamondbacks close with three games at San Diego.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8) allowed four hits in six innings and struck out seven to finish with 201. His 2.49 ERA ranked second in the NL behind the 1.97 ERA of Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes.
Three relievers finished a five-hitter in the Dodgers’ 10th shutout.
Freeman and Andy Pages homered back to back starting the second inning, Freeman off opener Jalen Beeks (5-3) and Pages against Nabil Crismatt. Mookie Betts added a two-run single.
Freeman, who had three RBIs, has 23 homers while Pages has 27.
Arizona finished 43-38 at Chase Field. The crowd of 34,952 raised home attendance to 2,393,773, the Diamondbacks’ highest since 2008.
Key moment
After Ohtani struck out with the bases loaded in the second, Betts lined Crismatt’s first pitch for a 4-0 lead.
Key stat
Los Angeles was 36-16 against the NL West.
Next
Dodgers: RHP Emmet Sheehan (6-3, 2.86) starts Friday at Seattle.
Diamondbacks: RHP Zac Gallen (13-14, 4.70) and San Diego RHP Yu Darvish (4-5, 5.51) start Friday.
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