The Dodgers spent so long racking up an insurmountable lead in the first inning that starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto resorted to throwing a ball against the back of the dugout to stave off rust.

He also went to the batting cages to keep his arm moving, tossing weighted PlyoCare balls.

As he worked, the Dodgers scored all of the runs they would need and more to defeat the Angels 9-2 on Saturday at Dodger Stadium. The chasm between the Freeway Series rivals was on display.

“That’s a lot of fun,” Dodgers rookie Ryan Ward said of the first-inning onslaught. “You can feel them start to speed up a little bit, and we’re starting to calm down and enjoy it. And it’s easy to pass it along when you have a lot of runners on, and then just keep it going.”

The one-run lead the Angels (24-41) had jumped out to in the top of the inning — when a leaping center fielder Andy Pages couldn’t quite reel in Oswald Peraza‘s deep line drive for an RBI triple — was long forgotten after the Dodgers rallied for nine runs in the first.

It was the most runs the Dodgers scored in a single inning in nearly five years, matching their seventh-inning rally against the Nationals on July 2, 2021.

The Dodgers (42-23) helped themselves with a show of power. Pages drove in the first two runs by crushing a center-cut changeup from Angels starting pitcher Jack Kochanowicz over the left-field wall.

Judging by his stroll out of the batter’s box, Pages seemed to know it was a homer on contact.

The ball had so much loft that reliever Blake Treinen parked under it in the bullpen and caught it with his hat. His fellow relievers mobbed him in an impromptu mosh pit.

“The homer by Andy to answer back was big, kind of put to bed any type of momentum they had at the top of the first,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And then after that, just the hits kept coming, just good at-bats.”

Later in the same inning, after the lineup turned over, Shohei Ohtani also notched a two-run homer, for his second hit. In between, rookie Ryan Ward hit a two-run double off the wall.

The Dodgers brought 12 batters to the plate and recorded six hits in a row — seven total.

The Angels’ shoddy defense exacerbated the scoring spree. They had a chance to get out of it just four runs into the rally.

Kochanowicz had faced eight hitters and only recorded one out when Angels manager Kurt Suzuki turned to his bullpen.

Veteran left-hander Brent Suter jogged in with the bases loaded. Immediately, Suter got Alex Freeland to hit a ground ball to shortstop Zach Neto, for what should have been an inning-ending double play.

Instead, Neto’s throw across his body sailed past second and into foul territory on the other side of the diamond. By the time Angels right fielder Jo Adell collected the ball and threw to the cutoff man, three runs had scored.

“We always say, you can’t give good teams extra outs,” Roberts said. “And so, to give us extra outs just makes us really tough to beat.”

Ohtani was up next. And in a two-strike count, he stayed inside a sinker to launch his two-run blast to left-center field.

The Angels’ defense didn’t fare much better in the second, although Suter navigated a pair of misplays — Neto muffed a one-hopper up the middle, which was ruled a single, and third baseman Donovan Walton overthrew first on a chopper — to escape without the Dodgers extending their lead.

Yamamoto retired 22 straight en route to eight innings of two-hit ball.

“I was given a big lead,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “So what I was trying to do was focus on my execution and also be fine, precise with my location, the height and location of my pitches.”

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers against the Angels in the first inning Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

The lead also gave him a chance to experiment.

“You get up big like that, you don’t want to get too cute to an extent,” catcher Dalton Rushing said. “But you also want to understand and see what he’s capable of. … For him, it’s so easy, because he has eight pitches that he can throw wherever he wants. Obviously it’s fun to work with him. We tried a few new tricks, and we’ll carry them over into his next one.”

While Yamamoto gave the Dodgers bullpen a rest, Roberts used the early blowout to give first baseman Freddie Freeman some rest.

Freeman, who has played in 62 of the Dodgers’ 65 games, left after the top of the fourth inning, replaced by Miguel Rojas.

The Angels had time to chip away, but they didn’t score again until Neto’s solo homer off Dodgers reliever Jack Dreyer in the ninth inning.

The contrast was glaring.

Rams defensive end Myles Garrett throws out the ceremonial first pitch Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

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Smith scratched

Dodgers catcher Will Smith was scratched from the lineup because of a stiff neck, Roberts said. The issue “came out of nowhere,” Roberts said, pointing to a “bad night’s sleep or a bad pillow.”

“He was going to play two out of three [against the Angels] regardless,” Roberts said. “So it’s nice that we could kind of tap Dalton on the shoulder and get him in there.”

Roberts said he expects Smith will return to the lineup Sunday.

Injury update

Right-handed reliever Brock Stewart (left foot bone spur) is progressing after a setback a week and a half ago stymied his throwing progression.

The last time Stewart threw live batting practice, he aggravated the injury by running afterward. But throwing to hitters Saturday went better. He’s scheduled to throw one more live BP session before going out on a minor-league rehab assignment, Roberts said.

Roster moves

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow smiles on the field before the Dodgers’ 9-2 win Saturday against the Angels at Dodger Stadium.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers added right-hander Nick Frasso to the 40-man roster and transferred right-hander Tyler Glasnow (back spasms) to the 60-day injured list.

The team originally expected Glasnow to avoid the IL altogether, but his back issues have persisted. He remains shut down from throwing after a flare-up.

“He wants to get cranking again,” Roberts said, “but the doctors just aren’t allowing it and the body is not allowing for it right now.”

The Dodgers also traded left-hander Antoine Kelly, whom they signed to a minor-league deal in November to the Cubs.

It’s a two of a kind for Golden Tempo.

The winner of last month’s Kentucky Derby, who sat out the Preakness Stakes, forfeiting a shot at the Triple Crown, took home the victory at the 158th Belmont Stakes in New York on Saturday.

Renegade opened up as the morningline 2-1 favorite, similar to the Derby, followed by Chief Wallabee at 3-1 and Golden Tempo at 9-2.

Just like the Derby, Golden Tempo was well at the back of the pack but began to make his move at the final turn. At one point, Golden Tempo was neck-and-neck with Commandment, but Golden Tempo was able to get away from the pack in the final stretch.

This was the second consecutive year in which the Derby winner skipped out on the Preakness to tune up for the Belmont. Last year, Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby before not traveling to Pimlico Race Course and then taking home the Belmont.

CHERIE DEVAUX REFLECTS ON MAKING KENTUCKY DERBY HISTORY AS FIRST FEMALE TRAINER TO WIN THE RACE

“We made our decision, he won today, and we’re happy about that,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said after the race.

Saturday’s Belmont Stakes marked the third consecutive, and final, year in which the race took place at Saratoga Race Course in Upstate New York, as Belmont Park finishes up renovations.

Due to the change in course since 2024, the race ran at 1 ¼ miles instead of its usual mile-and-a-half. Saratoga is home to the annual Whitney, Travers, and Jim Dandy Stakes.

This year’s Belmont did not feature any horses from the Preakness Stakes three weeks ago and just four from the Kentucky Derby in early May: Renegade, Commandment, Chief Wallabee, and Golden Tempo.

All four of them finished in the top four.

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Grant Govel was good, but Jason DeCaro was almost perfect.

USC baseball lost 4-0 in Game 2 of the NCAA Chapel Hill Super Regional, meaning its quest to break a 25-year College World Series drought will come down to a single game on Sunday.

North Carolina (49-12-1) turned to DeCaro with its season on the line, the seventh career NCAA tournament start for the veteran right-hander. DeCaro delivered a complete-game masterpiece, allowing just two hits — singles in the first and fifth innings — with eight strikeouts and one walk on a career-high 117 pitches.

“Obviously it was all about Jason DeCaro,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “He threw a heck of a game. He spotted his fastball and his breaking ball, we couldn’t get inside of it and couldn’t get through it. A very nice performance obviously by him, but the good thing is, we have tomorrow.”

Outside of giving up a solo home run to Colin Hynek in the second inning, Govel had a strong performance for USC (48-17). After throwing 153 pitches across two appearances in the NCAA regionals, including 64 pitches in Monday’s clinching win over Texas A&M, he gave up just five hits and struck out three over five innings and 83 pitches.

His final pitch was a crucial one, inducing an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners to hold the game at 1-0.

“Physically good,” Govel said when asked how he felt after making 236 pitches over a nine-day span. “I think having a good defense around me the entire time was very helpful. The solo shot didn’t really affect me. I’ve had a lot of homers hit off me this whole entire year. Competing with their guy — hats off to him, he pitched a hell of a game — felt good. The game just didn’t fall where we wanted it to.”

But for all of Govel’s great work, the day was all about DeCaro’s dominance.

North Carolina found success against the Trojans’ bullpen in the sixth. Erik Paulsen hit a 339-foot home run over the left-field corner wall to double the Tar Heels’ lead, just the second home run given up by USC’s Sax Matson all season. The Tar Heels added two more on sacrifice flies in the sixth and seventh innings, but failed to drive in more with the bases loaded in the seventh and ninth innings.

“We pitched well enough to keep ourselves close and give ourselves a shot,” Stankiewicz said. “But at the end of the day, it was just all about DeCaro.”

DeCaro got better as the game continued, retiring the final 10 USC batters. It was a dominant pitching performance, but thanks to USC’s comeback win Friday, the Trojans still have life.

North Carolina coach Scott Forbes confirmed either Folger Boaz or relief ace and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn. Stopper of the Year Award finalist Caden Glauber will start Game 3. Stankiewicz did not name a starting pitcher for the decisive game.

Regardless, it will be all hands on deck.

“We’ll need everybody,” Stankiewicz said. “We can’t go too long with too many.”

The game will start at noon PT on ESPN. The Trojans won four elimination games last weekend and they’ll need one more to complete its mission to Omaha.

“We tell our guys Sundays are always important,” Stankiewicz said. “This is probably the most important Sunday that they’ll ever play.”

The biggest afternoon of Trojans baseball in a quarter of a century awaits.