Shohei Ohtani's HR, with an exit velocity of 118.7 mph, was the hardest-hit ball all year in the majors. The sound of that pitch leaving the back is unbelievable, and the fact that it ended up in the second deck of Nationals Park is completely unsurprising. Wow.
The Dodgers had plenty of surprises today, though! After bumbling through five innings and letting winless Nationals starter Patrick Corbin stymie the lineup, it was the Dodgers' scrubs who came through to win this game. In the sixth inning, Kiké Hernandez singled home Teoscar Hernandez to tie the game at 1.
Teoscar Hernandez scored again in the eighth inning when James Outman, pinch hitting for Kiké with two out and a man on second, doubled to right to put the Dodgers ahead. And then Miguel Rojas singled to right to score Outman.
The Ohtani HR in the ninth was the capper, with the Dodgers almost giving the game away in the ninth save an out at home for the second out, plus a bases-loaded K on Jesse Winker to end the game.
But the scrubs (5-through-9 in the order) out-hit the Dodgers' Big Four, five hits to four, today (Freddie Freeman went 2-for-4; Will Smith went 0-for-4). And that makes three out of the last four games where the Dodgers, ranked 22nd in the majors with 9.42 Ks per game, actually had five or fewer Ks (we had 14 Ks on Saturday).
Could the Dodgers be getting more patient at the plate? Or more productive from the worst part of our lineup (to be faire, neither Gavin Lux nor Chris Taylor played today)? Either way, it was a good start to this nine-game roadtrip.
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Rockies come back to beat the Padres, 7-4. Dodgers now have a 1.5-game lead on San Diego and a 2.0 game lead on the Diamondbacks (with the Giants game pending).
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