Dodgers' bat wake up in blowout win over Nationals

WASHINGTON — A funny thing happens when a powerhouse lineup gets punched in the mouth: it tends to punch back harder.

A few days removed from a sobering home series loss to the Cleveland Guardians, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked very much awake Friday afternoon. What followed was less a response and more a full-on offensive avalanche, a 13-6 dismantling of the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.

It didn’t start that way.

In fact, for a brief moment, it looked like the hangover from that Guardians series had followed them across the country. Emmet Sheehan was one out away from escaping the first inning unscathed before everything unraveled. James Wood set the tone with a leadoff double, and after a walk to Brady House, CJ Abrams made Sheehan pay with a three-run homer.

Three batters, one swing, and suddenly a 3-0 deficit.

Given the way the Dodgers’ offense sputtered at times against Cleveland, it would’ve been fair to wonder if this one might slip early.

Instead, the third inning happened — five runs in what felt like five minutes, and a reminder of exactly who this lineup is when it clicks.

It began, fittingly, with Shohei Ohtani.

Still searching for his first extra-base hit of the season, Ohtani got a low changeup from Miles Mikolas and didn’t miss. The ball left his bat in a hurry and landed in right field seats just as quickly — a three-run shot that tied the game and flipped the dugout’s energy instantly.

From there, it snowballed.

Kyle Tucker kept the line moving with a single, setting the stage for Mookie Betts, who did what he’s done so often in Dodger blue: deliver in a big spot. His two-run homer not only gave the Dodgers the lead, but also marked his 154th as a Dodger, tying Willie Davis for 12th on the franchise’s all-time list.

And they still weren’t done.

Andy Pages — who looks more comfortable by the day — added another blast, continuing a torrid start (12-for-25 through seven games). By the time Freddie Freeman launched a 90 mph slider into the upper deck an inning later, the Dodgers had turned a three-run deficit into a four-homer barrage and a commanding lead.

Freeman’s shot, his second in as many games, was the 369th of his career, moving him into a tie for 85th all-time — just another milestone tucked into an inning that felt like batting practice.

By the fifth, the game had broken open.

Tucker (three hits on the day) and Teoscar Hernández each added RBI knocks, and while Ohtani came up empty in a bases-loaded spot — striking out on three pitches — the Dodgers still pushed their total to 11 runs in five innings.

Mikolas, meanwhile, had no answers. His line — 4⅓ innings, 11 hits, 11 runs — told the story of a pitcher caught in the middle of a lineup that had found its rhythm and wasn’t letting go.

The onslaught continued in the seventh when Tucker launched his first home run as a Dodger, a three-hit day punctuated with a first-pitch swing that pushed the lead to 12-4. By then, the only real question left was how high the number might climb.

Ohtani added one more RBI in the ninth with a sacrifice fly — his second bases-loaded opportunity of the day yielding a more productive result — capping the scoring at 13.

Lost in the offensive explosion was a quietly stabilizing effort from Sheehan. The right-hander didn’t have his best velocity — his fastball averaged 93 mph, down noticeably from last season — but he adjusted after the first-inning damage. He worked 5⅔ innings, limiting the Nationals to four runs and keeping the game within reach long enough for the offense to take over.

From there, the bullpen did enough.

Blake Treinen delivered a clean seventh, while Edgardo Henriquez hit some turbulence in the eighth, allowing two runs. Keibert Ruiz highlighted that inning with an RBI double before Washington scratched across another run on a fielder’s choice.

But with a seven-run cushion, it was never truly in doubt. Ben Casparius closed it out efficiently in the ninth, needing just 13 pitches to finish what the lineup had overwhelmingly decided hours earlier.

The Dodgers are now 5-2, and if Friday was any indication, whatever lingered from that Cleveland series didn’t make the trip east.

They’ll send Tyler Glasnow to the mound Saturday afternoon looking for his first win of the season, opposed by Jake Irvin. If the bats travel the way they did Friday, Glasnow might not need much help.