WASHINGTON \u2014 Any concerns about the Dodgers\u2019 offense created by a prosaic homestand were long gone Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Rude guests at the Washington Nationals\u2019 home opener, the Dodgers hit five home runs in a 13-6 victory over the Nationals in the first game of a six-game road trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cFreddie called it earlier. He said that we\u2019re wearing our spring training jerseys, so we\u2019re going to start hitting again,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the blue road jerseys with \u201cLos Angeles\u201d across the front \u2013 the first time in franchise history the team has worn that combination.<\/p>\n
Each of the first four hitters in the Dodgers\u2019 lineup \u2013 Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman \u2013 plus Andy Pages homered as the Dodgers scored more runs in their first road game of the season than they did in the final four games of the homestand combined (10). Eleven of them were charged to Nationals starter Miles Mikolas, a club record that he will be trying to work off his ERA all season now.<\/p>\n
That foursome at the top of the Dodgers\u2019 lineup had been less than fearsome on the homestand, combining for a .172 (15 for 87) start. They were 8 for 20 with 10 RBIs and six runs scored Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a new day. That\u2019s really it,\u201d Betts said of the breakout. \u201cNobody in here is panicking. It\u2019s been one week. That\u2019s probably not going to be our last week where we don\u2019t hit so you can\u2019t get emotional. Just stay the course \u2026 understanding that it\u2019s a long season. You can\u2019t get too high or too low. Be yourself. Sometimes yourself is not very good and sometimes yourself is really good. That\u2019s pretty much it. Just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most significant of the home runs might have been the first. Ohtani sent a three-run home run 401 feet into the right-field seats to start the Dodgers\u2019 scoring in the third inning. It was his first extra-base hit of the season and turned things around after a 3-for-19 start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when Shohei plays well, I think that it\u2019s a weight off everyone because he\u2019s our best player, and for him to perform, I think that everyone falls in line,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI know all those guys are happy to leave the ballpark today, and hopefully this spurs some more hits for Shohei, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucker followed with a single, the first of his three hits in the game and his first multi-hit game as a Dodger, and Betts drove the Dodgers\u2019 second home run of the game over the left-field wall. The five-run burst was the Dodgers\u2019 biggest inning of the season.<\/p>\n
They piled on from there. Pages hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning then Freeman did the same in the fifth. The Dodgers batted around that inning, scoring twice more on RBI singles from Teoscar Hernandez (one of his three hits in the game) and Tucker. Tucker\u2019s third hit of the game was his first home run as a Dodger, a solo shot in the seventh inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to feel more comfortable in the box,\u201d said Tucker, who started 4 for 23 on the homestand with nine strikeouts. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been kind of fouling off pitches over the plate more than I normally do and striking out more than I normally do \u2013 probably because I fouled off some pitches and get into worse counts. Just downhill from there. Doesn\u2019t really work out for me. So not trying to foul those balls off and put them forward. That worked out well today, just try to swing at good pitches and barrel them up.\u201d<\/p>\n
One theme from the homestand did continue in Washington. For the sixth time in seven games, the Dodgers\u2019 opponent scored first and the Dodgers were down multiple runs before they scored their first.<\/p>\n
Starter Emmet Sheehan gave up a rocket double \u2013 109.8 mph off James Wood\u2019s bat \u2013 on his first pitch of the game, walked a batter with two outs then gave up a three-run home run to C.J. Abrams.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously that\u2019s not how you want to start a game at all,\u201d Sheehan said. \u201cBut I think after that, Will (Smith) did a great job of keeping them off-balance with the pitches he was calling. And we got through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dodgers\u2019 offensive outburst smoothed away that rocky start. Sheehan allowed another run in the third inning but made it through 5\u2154 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and three walks. He struck out just two and continued to show a drop in his velocity this season. After averaging 95.4 mph on his fastball in 2023 and 95.6 mph in his return from Tommy John surgery last season, Sheehan\u2019s fastball averaged 93.8 mph in Friday\u2019s start.<\/p>\n
Roberts said he would focus on \u201cthe way (Sheehan\u2019s start) ended\u201d and not the rough first inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think today was a step in the right direction,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe looked like a major-league starter, and not a guy that\u2019s cutting his teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Any concerns about the Dodgers\u2019 offense created by a prosaic homestand were long gone Friday afternoon.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,57,4,415,468,185,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-662513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-nationals","12":"tag-shohei-ohtani","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-washington","15":"tag-washington-nationals","16":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116345828322320735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}