Dodgers Recap: Muncy and Ohtani lead rout of Nats

CHAVEZ RAVINE — Hard not to like the way the Dodgers finished up their homestand. Exploding for thirteen runs in the back half of the game, the offense came alive–especially Max Muncy and Shohei Ohtani–and delivered another series win as the Trolley Dodgers trounced the Washington Nationals by a score of 13-7.

Opening for the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani looked sharper in his second pitching appearance of the season, tossing a scoreless inning with two strikeouts and no earned runs. He opened by fielding a comebacker from CJ Abrams for the first out, then worked around a popup dropped by Mookie Betts that robbed him of a 1-2-3 inning. Undeterred, Ohtani struck out Luis García Jr. with a sweeping slider and blew away Nathaniel Lowe with a mix of upper-90s fastballs and another sharp sweeper. He threw 20 pitches (13 strikes), showing improved command and the electric stuff that makes his pitching return so highly anticipated.

Ohtani was hitting leadoff again, and similar to last time, he opened up the Dodgers’ half of the first with a strikeout off Nats starter Mike Soroka. That was quickly followed by two quick outs from Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, and once again the top of the lineup came up with nothing.

After trading zeroes in the second, the Nats broke through with a two-out rally in the top of the third. Bulk guy Ben Casparius quickly recorded the first two outs of the frame, but James Wood started the rally with a walk. Then, Luis Garcia Jr. hit a single. With men at first and second and a 1-1 count, Nathaniel Lowe hit a fly ball to deep center. Centerfielder Hyeseong Kim retreated on the ball and very nearly robbed Lowe of a homer, but the ball glanced off his glove and bounced up in the air. Initially ruled a double, the ball was called a homer after a crew chief review, and just like that, it was 3-0 Nats.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers were hitless through the first four innings. They had a runner in scoring position in the third thanks to a walk and Soroka balk, but the Nats righty notched his second second strikeout of Shohei Ohtani. But other than that, it was a very quiet first half of the game. In fact, Soroka had the K pitch working on Sunday, notching a career-high 10 strikeouts for the afternoon.

It wasn’t until the fifth inning that the Dodgers finally got a hit, a two-out double to the gap off the bat of Hyeseong Kim. But that too was erased by another Soroka strikeout, this time of Michael Conforto. In the bottom of the sixth, things got off to a good start when Dalton Rushing got a leadoff double. Soroka was very careful with Ohtani, giving him a free pass to first to put men on first and second for Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, two guys who could use a big hit in the worst way.

Betts popped up and failed to move the runners. Freeman quickly fell into an 0-2 hole before getting hit by a pitch to load up the bases. That brought Max Muncy to the plate with the tying run at first. And it brought Washington manager Dave Martinez out of the dugout to end Soroka’s day. Reliever Jose A. Ferrer came in for the lefty-lefty match-up. Muncy quickly got into a hitter’s count at 2-1, but Ferrer started whining about the condition of the mound, causing an extended delay while the grounds crew tended to his princess-like needs.

Finally, the mound was brought to Ferrer’s specifications and the at-bat resumed. Two pitches later, Max drilled an opposite field grand slam, and wow, did this game turn on a dime. The game went into the late innings with the Dodgers now holding a 4-3 lead.

After pitching five strong innings, Casparius’s day was done. His final line for Sunday: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K. Anthony Banda came on in the seventh, tasked with retiring the left-handed bats at the top of the Nats order. He was helped by a slick play by Tommy Edman and a caught-stealing on a play in which Jacob Young overslid second base. Still, Banda got James Wood to hit into an inning-ending 4-3 putout, so overall, a good frame from Banda.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers were looking for a little insurance off recent Dodger Ryan Loutas. And things didn’t go any better for him in red than they did in blue. The bottom of the order quickly loaded up the bases, thanks to a fielding error, a single and a walk. That brought up the starting pitcher. How about a bases-clearing triple? Yes, thank-you! Shohei snuck a ball inside the first base line and three Dodgers touched the plate before the ball was retrieved out of the right field corner.

With the Dodgers now leading 7-3, Betts and Freeman wanted in on the action, too. Betts ripped an RBI single into left, and Freddie dumped a little bloop job into center. Loutos gave way to Cole Henry, but it did little to stop the bleeding. How about ANOTHER MUNCY HOMER? Yep, the three-run jack to right center turned the entire affair into a blowout. It was the 18th time that the Funky Muncy has hit two home runs in a game. It was also Muncy’s fifth, sixth, and seventh RBI of the day, matching his career high. When all was said and done, it was a seven-run inning and the Dodgers led 11-3.

The Dodgers tacked on two more in the bottom of the eighth when Ohtani hit a home run (because of course). This one barely made it to the seats, but it was good enough for his second extras base hit of the day. In all, Muncy and Ohtani were 4-for-8 with three home runs and twelve RBI. So, yeah. Pretty good day all around.

The ninth inning featured all sorts of Kike-on-the-mound hijinks that made the score a lot closer than it actually was. Alex Vesia was needed to finally put a merciful end to the proceedings.

With the win, the Dodgers finish the ten-game homestand with a mark of 7-3. They now go into an extremely soft part of the schedule, facing off agains the hapless Rockies in Coors, and then a weekend series with the Royals in Kansas City. With a 3.5 game lead over the second place Giants, this last couple of weeks couldn’t have gone much better for the Dodgers. Real opportunity to put some daylight between themselves and the rest of the field. It’s all starts in Denver on Tuesday night (5:40 PDT first pitch) with a mystery starter (good ol’ TBD) throwing against German Marquez. Let’s do this!

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