WASHINGTON -- Just four batters into Wednesday's series finale, the Dodgers had already staked a four-run lead over the Nationals. It appeared to be an auspicious start for a team that sorely needed something to feel good about to wrap a tough road trip.
But Washington wasted little time in whittling that lead down to one run in the bottom of the first, and surged ahead two innings later against spot starter Landon Knack -- and Los Angeles' bats went cold, with Nats starter Jake Irvin retiring all but three of the 21 batters he faced after the first four.
It marked the 12th time the Dodgers had trailed in 14 games this season, but they were able to claw their way back in the seventh inning. Andy Pages launched a game-tying homer before Teoscar Hernández put L.A. back on top with an RBI single, and the Dodgers held on for a hard-fought 6-5 victory at Nationals Park.
The Nats mounted one last threat in the bottom of the ninth, putting the winning run on base against Blake Treinen. Washington's CJ Abrams might have driven in the tying run if not for Kik¨¦ Hern¨¢ndez's exceptional diving stop to his right to keep the ball in the infield, and Los Angeles held on to avoid being swept and join San Diego as the only teams with 10 wins this season.
"To cough up the lead when you score four runs in the first, it's really disheartening," manager Dave Roberts said. "But the way that guys just continue to play, and ¡ the Kik¨¦ play, and Andy showed some life, which is great for him. And then Teo just found a way to will himself to drive in a run.
"Those are things that are positives. ¡ It never feels good losing a series, but when you win that last one to salvage it, it's not so bad."
The night before, Roberts had lamented the lack of team at-bats in an 8-2 loss that saw the Dodgers strike out a season-high 15 times. He had noticed that trend throughout the six-game road trip, in which L.A. dropped back-to-back series to Philadelphia and Washington -- and hoped that the high strikeout total from the team's third straight loss would be a wake-up call.
"I just don¡¯t think 15 strikeouts with our ballclub should happen," Roberts said before the finale. "We faced [Tarik] Skubal and we faced [Chris] Sale, and we didn¡¯t punch 15 times. ¡ I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll see that again this year."
The first inning was certainly encouraging. Shohei Ohtani led off the frame with a single, and Mookie Betts followed with a walk. Tommy Edman drove them both in with a triple before Teoscar Hern¨¢ndez took Irvin deep to make it 4-0 Dodgers. While the top of the order got things started, it was Pages in the No. 9 hole who made the game-winning rally in the seventh happen.
After Pages got the Dodgers back in the game, Ohtani singled, stole second and moved over to third on Betts' grounder to second. Hern¨¢ndez then swatted a base hit just beyond the reach of Nats second baseman Luis Garc¨ªa Jr. to bring Ohtani home, a sequence that was more in line with what Roberts wanted to see from his team.
¡°Those are the at-bats you want during the game," Hern¨¢ndez said. "It¡¯s not always gonna be the big swings that are going to score runs. You¡¯re gonna score a lot of runs by walks, hustling off the ball, not getting into the double play.¡±
Even though it's the beginning of April, Los Angeles admitted to some urgency in its approach to the finale in Washington. During the Dodgers' run of 12 consecutive postseason appearances dating back to 2013, they've only been better than 10-4 through their first 14 games of a season once, when they were 12-2 to open 2021.
The issues that led to four losses in a five-game stretch aren't all that unusual for this point in the season. But because the Dodgers began the year with an undefeated eight-game run, they set a high bar from which they could only come down.
"When you¡¯re expected to win 162 games in a season and you lose four in a week, it could feel like the world¡¯s ending," Kik¨¦ Hern¨¢ndez said. "But at the end of the day, we have 148 more. At some point, we were going to play [crappy] baseball, and it just seemed like this was the week to do that."