The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Washington Nationals in the rubber match with a 13-7 victory, completing another comeback win powered by the bat of Max Muncy.
The Dodgers failed to score for the first five innings, and they didn’t even have a hit until Hyeseong Kim doubled in the fifth with two outs. But in the sixth inning, they put together a rally to take the lead.
Dalton Rushing started them off with a ground-rule double before Shohei Ohtani walked. Freddie Freeman was then hit by a pitch, which chased starting pitcher Michael Soroka from the game.
The Nationals turned to José Ferrer with the bases loaded and two outs, but it didn’t work out for them as Muncy blasted a grand slam to put the Dodgers up, 4-3. It was Muncy’s 10th home run of the season and the 200th of his Dodgers’ career.
The Nationals scored all their runs on a home run in the third inning against Ben Casparius. With two outs in the inning, James Wood walked and Luis García Jr. singled before Nathaniel Lowe hit his third home run in the last two games.
That was all Casparius allowed over his five innings of work before turning it over to the bullpen.
Anthony Banda was the first reliever called upon, and he pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
The Dodgers then broke the game open in the seventh, scoring seven runs to give them an 11-3 lead.
Kim reached on an error, Michael Conforto singled and Dalton Rushing walked to load the bases. Shohei Ohtani then delivered with a bases-clearing triple to give them seven runs for the game.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman followed with singles, and then Muncy blasted his second homer of the game to break it open and give the Dodgers 11 runs. The Dodgers added on two more runs in the 8th when Ohtani slugged a two-run homer after Rushing reached base for the fourth time in the game.
Lou Trivino pitched the eighth and stranded the bases loaded. Kiké Hernández entered in the ninth but retired just one hitter, loaded the bases twice, and allowed four runs.
Alex Vesia was called on to save the game after Hernández was taken out.
Shohei Ohtani makes 2nd start for Dodgers
Prior to Casparius, it was Ohtani on the mound for his second start with the Dodgers. The right-hander looked much better than his first start as he pitched a perfect inning.
Ohtani also struck out two hitters, which were his first strikeouts in a Dodgers uniform. He sat down García Jr. with a low and inside slider for the first of his Dodgers career. Ohtani then struck out Lowe to end the first inning.
While Dodgers manager Dave Roberts left open the possibility that Ohtani could pitch two innings, he was still limited to juse one.
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