LOS ANGELES — Jack Kochanowicz put his head in the lion’s mouth and came out with a win.
Over the 18 games before Friday night, the Dodgers averaged 7.8 runs per game (including 28 combined over the previous two nights) and hit .326 as a team. They reached double digits in runs six times in the previous 15 games.
But Kochanowicz tamed the Dodgers, holding them to one run on five hits over seven innings as the Angels won the opener of the Freeway Series at Dodger Stadium 6-2 Friday night.
The win was the Angels’ third in the past four meetings between the SoCal neighbors after losing a series record 11 consecutive to the Dodgers.
“He’s a dog,” Angels shortstop Zach Neto said of Kochanowicz. “To go up against that lineup and do what he did, induce that many double plays, and just keep them off their toes, it’s very special.”
Shohei Ohtani switched sides in the rivalry and has three home runs in his first five games against his former team, including a solo homer in the eighth inning Friday night. His ninth home run in the past 13 games gave him a major-league-leading 16 for the season.
But Kochanowicz kept the Dodgers’ offense grounded for most of the night.
Relying on his sinker as usual (45 of his 104 pitches), the Angels right-hander induced 14 ground ball outs, including four double plays in his 6⅔ innings. Kochanowicz’s 12 GIDPs induced this season are tied with teammate Jose Soriano for the most in the majors.
“The sinker was good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We just couldn’t barrel him out there. … It’s hard when you have some traffic and then you hit into some double plays. A couple of those balls were hit hard, but he did a good job navigating some stress.”
The Dodgers did make plenty of hard contact. They hit six balls in the first three innings that had exit velocities over 97 mph. But only one of those was a hit – a 104.3 mph single leading off the first inning by Ohtani. Even that was a ground ball and two other hard-hit balls were turned into double plays to end the first two innings.
As the game went on, Kochanowicz weaponized a changeup that he had thrown just 30 times in his first eight starts. He used it 26 times against the Dodgers, getting four swings-and-misses, including back-to-back strikeouts of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in the sixth inning.
After dragging a 5.79 ERA through his first seven starts, Kochanowicz had little job security even in the Angels’ rotation. Over his past two starts, however, he has given up just two runs in 12⅓ innings to the Orioles and Dodgers.
“Felt like I stayed at my zone, stayed down underneath the zone the whole time,” Kochanowicz said. “Changeup has definitely been a work in progress, but I used it well tonight. I hit my spots. Felt good about that.
“I’ve been working on it a little bit in my bullpens each week. I’ve just been kind of trying to get to a better mechanical point. And once I got there, the sinker gets better, and the changeup is a lot better. So once I got to that point, it’s the same pitch, it’s the same feel.”
Max Muncy’s RBI double dinged Kochanowicz for the Dodgers’ only run in the fourth inning. Hyeseong Kim was most of the Dodgers’ offense. He had a pair of singles, extending a streak of reaching base to nine consecutive plate appearances (five singles, a double, one home run and two walks) before grounding out in his third time up Friday.
Dustin May, meanwhile, continued the erratic portion of his return from a second elbow surgery.
He gave up a two-run home run to Yoan Moncada in the first inning, then created more offense for the Angels in the fourth. After a one-out single by Luis Rengifo, May hit back-to-back batters with pitches in a three-pitch span.
That loaded the bases for Zach Neto, who drove in two with a double to left.
“It was kind of all around bad,” May said by way of assessing his outing. “I’m kind of glad they were swinging because if they weren’t, I might not have gotten an out. So it was good they were attempting to hit because I wasn’t throwing very many strikes.
“The bullpen pregame wasn’t very good. Just felt out of sync, out of whack. Just not a good night.”
Ohtani’s home run closed the gap in the eighth. But the Dodgers hit into their fifth double play of the game (tying a franchise record), and the Angels added insurance runs in the ninth. Matthew Lugo reached on an infield single, and Neto’s second double of the night moved him to third. Nolan Schanuel drove them both in with a single.