WASHINGTON –– And, breathe.
The Dodgers’ offense isn’t broken. Its superstar hitters aren’t imploding. And the concerns over their opening-week slump, it turned out, might have indeed been prematurely overblown.
For one day, at least, the team finally looked as advertised in a 13-6 win over the Washington Nationals.
All it took was 16 hits and five home runs to quiet the recently building concern.
The onslaught started in the top of the third. Shohei Ohtani erased an early deficit with his first home run of the year, sending a three-run rocket to the right-field stands. Mookie Betts put the team in front two batters later, clubbing a two-run homer to the left-field bullpen.
And from there, the Dodgers (5-2) kept on mashing veteran Washington starter Miles Mikolas.
Andy Pages hit a two-run blast in the fourth, continuing his blistering start to the season. Freddie Freeman ignited a four-run rally in the fifth with a two-run shot of his own. Teoscar Hernández chipped in with three hits, including an RBI double. Kyle Tucker also had three knocks, adding some late insurance by deep for his first time with the team in the seventh.
The outburst made Emmet Sheehan’s choppy 5 ⅔-inning, four-run start largely irrelevant, negating the three-run home run he allowed to CJ Abrams back in the first.
It also showed, for really the first time this season, how dangerous the Dodgers can be when the top of their lineup is clicking.
Before Friday, the team’s Nos. 1-4 hitters had a combined .161 average. On Friday, they went 8-for-21 as a group with 10 RBIs.
What it means
Depends if the Dodgers can keep this going.
Beating up on Mikolas, after all, is no special accomplishment. The former two-time All-Star has a 5.00 ERA over the last four seasons. He’s also been especially bad against the Dodgers in his career with a 7.80 ERA –– ironic, since he has been one of the few MLB players to publicly criticize their recent spending.
Still, games like Friday are more what the Dodgers envisioned when putting together this year’s record-breaking $415-million payroll.
As Freeman presciently noted earlier this week, amid questions about the team’s slow start, “I think our offense is inevitable.”
For one game, they finally made that true.
Who’s hot
Outside of Andy Pages, who is now batting a team-best .480 after going 3-for-4 with a walk, how about the leadoff duo of Ohtani and Tucker –– who not only hit their first home runs in Friday’s victory, but also recorded their first multi-hit games of the season, Ohtani going 2-for-5 with four RBIs and Tucker 3-for-6 with two RBIs.
Entering Friday, the pair had seven total hits (and only one for extra bases) and 14 combined strikeouts. Even after just six games, Roberts was asked Friday morning if he had considered splitting them up at the top of the lineup.
The manager hadn’t, of course, noting it was far too early for such drastic changes.
However, he did emphasize the importance of Tucker’s No. 2 spot hitting behind Ohtani.
“Him getting on base and being a threat,” Roberts said, “changes how a team is going to approach Shohei.”
Who’s not
Sheehan did well to limit damage after Abrams’ early home run. But two starts into the campaign, the fourth-year starter doesn’t look right.
For a second-straight game, Sheehan’s fastball velocity was noticeably down, averaging just 93.8 mph compared to 95.6 mph a season ago. Both Abrams’ homer and James Wood’s leadoff double earlier in the first inning came against heaters that failed to break 95.
Roberts was expecting Sheehan’s velocity to tick up before the game, saying the team’s hitting coaches had identified a flaw in his mechanics.
“I think a lot of what he’s done lately is spin out (of his delivery) more than is typical,” Roberts said. “So getting the direction better, we feel it should increase velocity and he should be able to hold it and his pitch mix should be better. We’ll see.”
With an 8.00 ERA and an 8-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio through his first two starts, that search remains ongoing for the 26-year-old right-hander.
Up next
The Dodgers continue their weekend series at Nationals Park with a 1:05 p.m. start Saturday. Tyler Glasnow will take the bump, coming off his six-inning, two-run season debut last week. Jake Irvin will start for Washington. The right-hander has a career 4.92 ERA, but gave up just two runs in five innings to the Chicago Cubs in his first outing this year.
