{"id":855994,"date":"2026-04-05T23:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T23:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855994\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T23:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T23:48:19","slug":"dodgers-bash-nationals-bullpen-to-complete-sweep-with-8-6-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855994\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers bash Nationals\u2019 bullpen to complete sweep with 8-6 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join the huddle. Sign up here<\/a> for Ravens updates in your inbox.<\/p>\n

For seven innings Sunday, the Nationals were both lucky and good. They\u2019d pulled away from the Dodgers with a fortuitous bounce and a big bat. They\u2019d kept baseball\u2019s richest roster in check with starting pitcher Foster Griffin\u2019s seven-pitch mix. For seven innings, they\u2019d set themselves up for an Easter Sunday win and a streak-snapping series finale. <\/p>\n

But to beat the defending World Series champions requires a certain amount of skill and a certain amount of luck. And in the eighth inning the Nationals ran out of both.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers scored four runs in the decisive frame, battering a bullpen that they\u2019d thinned earlier in the weekend, and held on for an 8-6 win before an announced 24,899 at Nationals Park. Washington (3-6), which won three of its first four games this season, has lost a Major League Baseball-worst five straight games.<\/p>\n

Superstar Shohei Ohtani, one of three Dodgers with multiple RBIs, put Los Angeles (7-2) ahead for good in the top of the eighth inning with a sacrifice fly that scored Santiago Espinal from third base. The Nationals\u2019 6-3 lead had by then faded into oblivion; Freddie Freeman, Andy Pages and Alex Call all scored after opening the frame against reliever Cionel Perez with a single, a double and a walk, respectively.<\/p>\n

Until Griffin stepped onto the mound Sunday, the Dodgers\u2019 offense had operated with an air of inevitability and invulnerability in Washington. They scored a combined 23 runs and roughed up starters Miles Mikolas and Jake Irvin in comfortable wins Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

Griffin kept Los Angeles guessing. He struck out the first three Dodgers he faced, all swinging, and punched out six overall in five innings, allowing just one earned run, a homer to Ohtani. He toggled among his cutter, fastball, curveball, sweeper, changeup and splitter, building on an impressive debut in a blowout win last week over the Phillies. <\/p>\n

At the plate, the Nationals answered Ohtani\u2019s solo blast in the third with a two-run shot from Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. not long after, then built on their advantage. Good fortune was on their side.<\/p>\n

In the fourth inning, Keiburt Ruiz had a hitter\u2019s count and a good look at an 86-mph, two-out offering from starter R\u014dki Sasaki that hung over the middle of the plate. But he swung at the slider as if he expected to foul it off. <\/p>\n

The ball had other ideas. It hugged the first base line and skittered toward Freeman at first base, waiting near the edge of the infield. Better to be lucky than good \u2014 Ruiz\u2019s grounder caromed off first base and kicked well over Freeman\u2019s head, the single scoring CJ Abrams from second base.<\/p>\n

Even better to be lucky, then good. Two batters later, James Wood blasted a three-run homer for a 6-1 lead. <\/p>\n

It would not be enough. The Nationals, who averaged 5.7 runs per game in the series as they built on a hot start to the season, needed more. Relievers PJ Poulin, Clayton Beeter, Andre Granillo and Perez combined to allow seven earned runs and six hits in four innings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Join the huddle. Sign up here for Ravens updates in your inbox. For seven innings Sunday, the Nationals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[31870,184,117,2282,8756,7,6060,33391,6,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-855994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-american-league","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-baltimore-ravens","11":"tag-baltimoreravens","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-national-league","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116354777398410859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}