HOUSTON — Teoscar Hernández hit his 22nd home run, River Ryan struck out eight in his first major league win and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros 6-2 on Sunday.
Gavin Lux and James Outman also homered and Shohei Ohtani stole his career-high 27th base for the Dodgers, who came into the game with a 1-7 road record in July.
''That was a good win top to bottom,'' Lux said. ''To take one from a really good team, obviously avoid the sweep, have some momentum going into the off day. I think we all wanted that one pretty bad.''
With the Dodgers clinging to a 3-2 lead in the eighth, Hernández turned on a slider from Bryan King and sent it 361 feet into the left field seats. Cavan Biggio extended the Dodgers lead with an RBI single to center, scoring Lux, who had walked, to make it 5-2.
Jason Heyward tacked on another run with an RBI sacrifice fly in the ninth, scoring Ohtani.
''We need every bit of it,'' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. ''Up and down the lineup we got production. That was a good thing.''
After the first inning, Ryan (1-0) struck out six of the next 10 batters he faced through the fourth. The rookie did not surrender a hit until Jon Singleton doubled off the right field bullpen fence to lead off the sixth inning.
Ryan retired the next two batters on flyballs to center field but had reached his 91st pitch, so Roberts decided to go to the bullpen.