Max Muncy, high-octane Dodgers set for rematch vs. Rangers

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the first 10-win team in the majors, and they largely have gotten there with a potent offense.

The Dodgers, who host the Texas Rangers on Saturday night in the second contest of their three-game series, lead the majors in hits (134), batting average (.297) and homers (25).

Four of those homers came in Friday night's 8-7 win over the Rangers. Max Muncy went deep three times -- including a walk-off blast in the ninth inning -- and the torrid Andy Pages also homered.

Pages has been a hot hitter from the first game of the season. He is batting .449 and after going 3-for-3 while driving in four runs on Friday to boost his team-leading totals in hits (22) and RBIs (16).

Muncy moved into sixth place all-time in career home runs as a Dodger with 213, and Shohei Ohtani is now the record holder for most consecutive games reaching base at 44. Ohtani's single on Friday gave him the record after he broke a tie with Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki.

"It's great," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani. "He's taking walks, getting hits and he hasn't really got going yet. For us to win the games we've won, score the runs we've scored ... and Sho isn't going, he's going to get hot. That's a good thing for us."

The Dodgers will turn to right-hander Emmet Sheehan (1-0, 8.00 ERA) to make the start on Saturday.

Sheehan is looking for a better performance after having allowed four earned runs in each of his first two starts of the season. He has an 11-4 career record and has eight strikeouts to five walks this season.

Sheehan lost the only game he's ever started against Texas, with eight runs allowed in 3 2/3 innings in his first major league loss in July 2023.

The Rangers, after a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners, pitched well as a team in that series. But they allowed more runs Friday night at Dodger Stadium than they did over the three games with Seattle combined.

The Texas bullpen allowed five runs on 10 hits over 3 2/3 innings of relief against the Dodgers, though left-hander Jalen Beeks pitched a scoreless inning.

Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford each hit a home run for the Rangers on Friday, Seager belted his team-high fourth of the season. But Langford left the game with right quad tightness after five innings.

It's unclear of the severity of the injury.

The scheduled starting pitcher for the Rangers on Saturday is right-hander Jack Leiter (1-0, 2.45 ERA). Leiter has given up nine hits in 11 total innings of work and has 17 strikeouts to just two walks.

Leiter is facing the Dodgers for the first time in his career. He's come up with an effective cut fastball to add to his arsenal, with the goal of "going deeper into games and throwing more innings this year," he told MLB.com.

--Field Level Media