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 mounting questions.
“Rome isn’t burning,” manager Dave Roberts quipped.
“Nobody in here is panicking,” added shortstop Mookie Betts.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t frustration with how the offense had started the season. Entering Friday, the Dodgers ranked 22nd in scoring, were hitting just .237 as a team and were coming off a lackluster series loss back home to the Cleveland Guardians.
On what was Opening Day at Nationals Park, however, a three-inning onslaught changed all that.
It started with Shohei Ohtani, who erased an early deficit with his first home run of the year, sarcastically looking to the heavens after a 401-foot drive to right field.
Betts then put the team in front with a two-run homer two batters later.
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 with a three-hit day. 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.
And, in a late-game highlight, Kyle Tucker added some late insurance with his first Dodgers home run in the seventh, punctuating his breakout three-hit day.
“Everyone clicking today was kind of nice,” Tucker said. “Hopefully this is just the start of a really good offensive year for us.”
The outburst made Emmet Sheehan’s choppy 5 ⅔-inning, four-run start largely irrelevant.
It also showed, for really the first time this season, how dangerous the Dodgers can be when the top of their lineup is all doing damage.
“There was a lot of hoopla going on in that first homestand,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this will spur something else.”
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.
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Still, games like Friday are more what the Dodgers envisioned when putting together this year’s record-breaking $415-million payroll. Their Nos. 1-4 hitters alone, who had a combined .161 average entering play, they went 8-for-21 as a group with 10 RBIs.
As Freeman presciently noted earlier this week: “I think our offense is inevitable.”
Who’s hot
Outside of Pages, who is now batting a team-best .480, 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) against 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 order.
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 in the lineup directly 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 an early three-run home run by CJ Abrams. But two starts into the campaign, the fourth-year starter still doesn’t look right.
For a second-straight game, his fastball velocity was noticeably down, averaging just 93.8 mph (even with a late uptick at the end) 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 be improved before the game, saying the team’s pitching 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 his pitch mix should be better.”
Instead, the search remains ongoing for the right-hander, who now has an 8.00 ERA and an 8-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio through his first two outings.
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.