Playing at Nationals Park for the first time since Game 5 of the 2016 National League Division Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked their usual selves. The same team that once was on pace to threaten the MLB record for most wins in a single season had gone cold over the past three weeks.
The result was a porous 1-16 stretch and 11-game losing streak that was the longest in franchise history since 1944. Now, the Dodgers have notched three consecutive wins heading into Saturday’s afternoon matchup with the Washington Nationals.
Los Angeles has received strong outings by Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish and Alex Wood during the winning streak, and on Friday night saw the same power hitting that propelled them to a 50-10 run earlier this season.
Corey Seager, who hit a three-run home run in the second inning, touched on the Dodgers reverting back to the keys that paved the way for success, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“That felt more like us,” said Seager, whose three-run shot, his 20th, blew the game open. “Drove some balls, slugged tonight, took our walks, stuff we haven’t done lately, which is nice to get back to. All around, I think tonight was more like us.”
Justin Turner, whose two-out solo home run in the first inning opened the scoring, echoed a similar sentiment:
“I feel like we’re back on track,” Turner said. “Try to give those guys some breathing room and settle into a game knowing they have runs on the board. During that stretch, we didn’t score many runs early on and they probably felt they had to be perfect and not get behind. The power’s great, the home runs, but you look at that stretch, the majority of us were guilty of trying to do too much and swinging out of the zone.”
Turner and Seager each reached 20 home runs to give the Dodgers four players with at least that many this season. Yasmani Grandal and Chris Taylor may soon join the quartet, as they’ve each slugged 19 homers.
The 7-0 victory was the Dodgers’ 15th shutout this season. They trimmed their magic number to clinch the NL West to six and extended their lead over the Nationals to six games. This weekend’s series figures to loom large in the race for home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs.
