{"id":665772,"date":"2026-04-06T03:41:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665772\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:41:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:41:59","slug":"roki-sasaki-stumbles-dodgers-bail-him-out-in-comeback-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665772\/","title":{"rendered":"Roki Sasaki stumbles, Dodgers bail him out in comeback win"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The box score will remember it as another comeback. The clubhouse will remember it as something else entirely.<\/p>\n

On a gray, rain-delayed afternoon that felt like it might slip away for good, the Dodgers instead reinforced the identity they\u2019ve been quietly building over the season\u2019s first stretch: relentless, opportunistic, and increasingly dangerous late. Their 8\u20136 win over the Washington Nationals on Sunday wasn\u2019t clean, and it certainly wasn\u2019t conventional.<\/p>\n

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For Roki Sasaki, it was a lifeline.<\/p>\n

A start that nearly unraveled\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) pitches against Washington Nationals left fielder James Wood (29) during the third inning at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) pitches against Washington Nationals left fielder James Wood (29) during the third inning at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n

For two innings, Sasaki looked every bit like the front-line weapon the Dodgers envisioned. Crisp, efficient, even flashing the developing third pitch he\u2019s spent the spring refining. But by the third, the margin for error narrowed\u2014and then disappeared.<\/p>\n

A walk to James Wood. A spiked breaking ball. And then a mistake fastball that Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. didn\u2019t miss.<\/p>\n

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Two batters, two runs, and suddenly the rhythm was gone.<\/p>\n

The fourth inning only compounded it. What should have been an inning-ending grounder from Keibert Ruiz instead ricocheted off the first-base bag and into right field. Two batters later, Wood again\u2014this time depositing an 0\u20132 splitter into the seats for a three-run homer.<\/p>\n

From 1\u20130 Dodgers to 6\u20131 Nationals in a blink.<\/p>\n

Sasaki\u2019s final line\u2014five innings, six earned runs\u2014won\u2019t flatter him. Nor should it. The command wavered, and at this level, elevated mistakes don\u2019t come back. Still, there were flashes: five strikeouts, moments of swing-and-miss dominance, hints that the foundation remains intact.<\/p>\n

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What he didn\u2019t have Sunday was margin. What he did have was a team that refused to let the outing define the game.<\/p>\n

Ohtani starts it, but the lineup finishes it\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) hits a solo home run off of Washington Nationals pitcher Foster Griffin (22) during the third inning at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) hits a solo home run off of Washington Nationals pitcher Foster Griffin (22) during the third inning at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n

For five innings, the Dodgers\u2019 offense was little more than a footnote against Foster Griffin. No hits the first time through the lineup.<\/p>\n

Then came Shohei Ohtani.<\/p>\n

A 438-foot drive to dead center in the third inning not only put the Dodgers on the board\u2014it extended his on-base streak to 40 games.<\/p>\n

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The slow climb back<\/p>\n

Down five runs after four innings, the Dodgers didn\u2019t panic\u2014they chipped away.<\/p>\n

Dalton Rushing, after a frustrating pitch-clock strikeout earlier, answered with a two-run homer in the sixth. A small moment, maybe, but it trimmed the deficit and shifted the tone.<\/p>\n

By the eighth inning, trailing 6\u20133, the Dodgers loaded the bases with no outs. That\u2019s when Santiago Espinal\u2014quietly one of the club\u2019s best spring performers\u2014delivered his first real signature moment in blue: a two-run single that snapped the tension and pulled the Dodgers within one.<\/p>\n

Depth, decisions, and a defining inning<\/p>\n

Dave Roberts went to his bench, and the Dodgers\u2019 depth did the rest. Will Smith came in to pinch hit and worked a walk to reload the bases. Kyle Tucker\u2014also came in to pinch hit, another option Roberts trusted in the moment\u2014put the ball in play, productive even in an out.<\/p>\n

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Then Ohtani again. Not a homer this time, but a sacrifice fly that completed the climb all the way back from five down to ahead 7\u20136.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t flashy. It was better than that\u2014situational, disciplined, and emblematic of a lineup that doesn\u2019t need heroics from one spot when it can generate pressure from all of them.<\/p>\n

An inning later, Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez added breathing room with his first homer of the season, a solo shot that pushed the lead to 8\u20136.<\/p>\n

From there, it was over.<\/p>\n

Edwin D\u00edaz handled the ninth with authority, needing just 13 pitches to secure the final three outs. Seven unanswered runs. A sweep completed. And another comeback added to a growing tally that now leads Major League Baseball at five.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Edwin Daz (3) celebrates with Dodgers catcher Will Smith (16) after the final out against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Edwin Daz (3) celebrates with Dodgers catcher Will Smith (16) after the final out against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers scored 31 runs in this series. That alone will quiet early-season concerns about offensive inconsistency. But Sunday wasn\u2019t about volume\u2014it was about resilience. Games like this don\u2019t show up in projections. They don\u2019t carry into October standings. But inside a clubhouse, they matter.<\/p>\n

They tell a struggling starter he won\u2019t have to be perfect.They remind a lineup it\u2019s never out of a game.They reinforce a belief that deficits are temporary. For Sasaki, it means a reset instead of a spiral.<\/p>\n

For the Dodgers, it\u2019s something more: a team already showing it can win in more ways than one.<\/p>\n

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Next stop: Toronto<\/p>\n

A return north of the border. A World Series rematch. And a familiar stage where, not long ago, the Dodgers proved exactly how dangerous they can be when a game, and a moment, refuses to slip away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The box score will remember it as another comeback. The clubhouse will remember it as something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,10900,1087,55398,565,2101,29,57,4,415,3628,1258,110,1552,1528,282,414,71,4222,1535],"class_list":{"0":"post-665772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dalton-rushing","10":"tag-edwin-diaz","11":"tag-foster-griffin","12":"tag-james-wood","13":"tag-keibert-ruiz","14":"tag-kyle-tucker","15":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-nationals","18":"tag-nationals-park","19":"tag-ohtani","20":"tag-roki-sasaki","21":"tag-santiago-espinal","22":"tag-teoscar-hernandez","23":"tag-toronto","24":"tag-washington","25":"tag-washington-nationals","26":"tag-washingtonnationals","27":"tag-will-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116355698385355468","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665772","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=665772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}