On Saturday evening, Freddie Freeman and the Los Angeles Dodgers picked up an impressive road win vs their southern California rivals, the San Diego Padres, by a final margin of 5-0. The win pushed the Dodgers' overall record to 27-14, meaning they've won almost twice as many games as they've lost so far in 2024, and Freeman continues to look like one of the game's elite players despite being on the wrong side of 30 years old.

During the game on Saturday, Freeman also made a bit of MLB history with a home run in the first inning that put the Dodgers up 1-0 early. That home run came off of a knuckle ball pitch, which was the fourth time Freeman had accomplished that feat in his storied career. The accomplishment tied Freeman for the most such home runs in the pitch-tracking era (2008), with Nelson Cruz, Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn, via Sarah Langs of the MLB on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.

Meanwhile, on the mound for the Dodgers, James Paxson pitched arguably his best game of the season so far, shutting out the Padres over the course of six scoreless innings.

After the game, manager Dave Roberts got one hundred percent honest on Paxson's excellence in the victory.

“James was good again. All of his pitches were working,” Roberts said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN). “He was on the attack all night long. He kept them off balance.”

A concerning update

The win vs the Padres on Saturday did not come without one mood killer, as recently signed superstar Shohei Ohtani was forced to leave the game late after sustaining what has since been described as back tightness after going 0-3 with one walk during his time in the game vs San Diego.

Ohtani was replaced in the lineup by Kike Hernandez for what would have been his final at bat in the ninth inning, leading some to wonder whether the superstar would be available for Sunday afternoon's series finale in San Diego.

Earlier in the day on Sunday, fans got their answer to that question, as it was revealed that Ohtani would indeed miss the contest.

“Shohei Ohtani is not in the Dodgers lineup today, as expected, after feeling back tightness last night,” reported Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.

After the game on Saturday, Roberts shed a (very minimal) amount of light on the injury situation.

“I got word before his fourth at-bat that his back tightened up,” Roberts said, per Yahoo Sports (via Jack Harris). “Being 5-0, we didn’t want to push it. So we’ll see how he comes in tomorrow.”

In any case, on Sunday, the Dodgers will look to officially make it so that they've won twice as many games as they've lost in the young 2024 campaign and continue their surge up the NL standings. The series finale vs the Padres is set to get underway at 4:10 PM ET from San Diego.