WASHINGTON, DC — The beat goes on in Washington, DC on Saturday. For the second straight game, the Dodgers had their hitting shoes on. They jumped all over Nationals pitching, scoring early and often, and secured the series win with a 10-5 victory. Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages led the charge (seven RBI between them), with a solid start from Tyler Glasnow to seal the deal. In other words, it was a good day at the ballpark.

Runs in the first? What a concept!

For the first time this year, the Dodgers got things going early. In this game, it only took a few hitters before the Dodgers jumped out to a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. Shohei Ohtani led off with a wall ball for the first out, but it was all good after that. Kyle Tucker, continuing to feast on DC pitching, hit a single off starter Jake Irvin and took second on a failed pickoff attempt. After a Mookie Betts walk, Freddie Freeman came up and wasted no time. He ripped the first offering from Irvin and sent it to the right centerfield gap. It cleared the bases, and for the second straight day, LA was on the board first.

The lone bummer on the play was that Mookie Betts tweaked his back rounding the bases and had to be pulled for the rest of the day. More on his prognosis to follow.

Piling it on

Miguel Rojas, Betts’ replacement at short, contributed with the bat almost immediately. Batting with the bases loaded in the top of the third, he came through with a sac fly to center to put the Dodgers up 3-0. But the big blow of the inning came courtesy of Freddie Freeman, who smacked another two-run double into exactly the same part of the park. Three runs in the inning made it a 5-0 Dodger lead.

Glasnow in his rocking chair

Gifted with a nice lead, Dodger starter Tyler Glasnow could go into attack mode. And attack he did. Glasnow gave up a couple of tin soldiers in the third and fourth, but other than that, he was great. He was getting ahead of hitters all day, and really had his strikeout pitch working. The righthander pitched a solid six on just over 100 pitches, and struck out nine Nationals along the way. He left the game with a comfortable 9-2 lead and was in line for his first win of the year.

Andy Pages for MVP

Freddie Freeman was great early, but Andy Pages took over in the later stages of the game. His incredible start of the 2026 season continued apace in this one, with three hits on the afternoon. By far, the biggest of the three was his three-run home run in the top of the fifth. With the Dodgers leading 6-2, Pages tomahawked a high fastball to left center for his third roundtripper of the year. By the end of the day, Pages’ batting average sat at a tidy .500, with an OPS of 1.349. So yeah, I think that October slump last year is a thing of the past.

Beyond Freeman and Pages’ heroics, there were plenty of flowers to hand out up and down the lineup. Will Smith had three hits. Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Tucker both had a couple of knocks, and Alex Call, making his first start of the year, went 2-for-5 with an RBI. The Dodgers matched their 16-hit total of the first game, and look like a completely different team than the one that played in Los Angeles last week. Keep it goin’, guys!

Next up: Roki, Part II

The series in DC has one more chapter to play out before the team heads to Toronto for what should be an epic World Series rematch. In the final game against the Nationals, Roki Sasaki takes to the bump to try to give the Dodgers (6-2) a getaway day victory. He’s going to face off against Foster Griffin, who most recently was playing for the Yomiuri Giants in the NPB. He was a Central League All-Star in 2025, going 6-1 with a 1.52 ERA, 87 strikeouts, 22 walks and just one home run allowed in 89 innings across 17 starts. The Dodgers will be looking for length out of Sasaki, especially since they are hoping to use Justin Wrobleski in a starter’s role in Toronoto. First pitch on Sunday is 10:35 AM, California time. See you there!

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