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Dave Roberts had a feeling as he walked around the clubhouse on Wednesday afternoon.

Over the previous five days, his once-unbeaten Dodgers team had lost four times. The night before, they did so embarrassingly on a frigid night in the country’s capital, striking out 15 times in a six-run loss to the rebuilding Washington Nationals.

In that defeat, Roberts was particularly perturbed by the club’s quality of at-bats — or lack thereof.

“The at-bats collectively haven’t been ‘team’ at-bats, and the results are showing,” Roberts said Tuesday night.

"I just don’t think 15 strikeouts with our ballclub should happen,” he reiterated in his pregame media scrum Wednesday.

Read more:Without Blake Snell, Dodgers' highly touted pitching depth falters in loss to Nationals

By then, however, Roberts had noticed a renewed intensity from the group in their afternoon preparation — hopeful that Tuesday’s blowout, and an overall frustrating first trip in which they’d already clinched back-to-back series losses, would serve as the catalyst for a much-needed getaway day win.

“You don’t want to get swept by these guys. That wouldn’t be a good thing,” Roberts said, with the Dodgers having already lost twice this week at Nationals Park. “I think our guys have a good look today. There’s a sense of pride … I think you’ll see a different focus today. I expect us to perform today.”

In a 6-5 win over the Nationals, the Dodgers performed just enough; building, then blowing, an early four-run lead before finally prevailing behind a go-ahead seventh-inning rally.

With the sun finally out, and this week’s freezing East Coast temperatures finally warming up, the Dodgers got off to a blistering start Wednesday.

Shohei Ohtani hit a leadoff single. Mookie Betts put two aboard with a walk. Tommy Edman drove them both in with a triple into the right-field corner. Then Teoscar Hernández left the yard for a two-run shot.

Four batters in, it was 4-0.

The lead, however, wouldn’t last.

Nationals starter Jake Irvin found a groove, retiring 18 of the 21 batters he faced the rest of the way in what turned into a decent six-inning start.

Dodgers starter Landon Knack, on the other hand, faltered in his return to the big-league roster, giving up three runs in the bottom of the first (it would have been more if not for an inning-ending play Betts made deep in the hole at shortstop) then two more while getting pulled in the third.

The Nationals’ 5-4 lead lasted until Irvin exited the game at the start of the seventh — opening the door for the Dodgers to finally answer back.

Andy Pages started the rally by whacking his second home run in two nights, busting out of his early-season slump with a game-tying drive to left in an 0-and-2 count.

Then, Ohtani reached on a booted grounder to second. Edman drew a two-out walk. And with runners on the corners, Hernández lifted a bloop single just over the head of second baseman Luis García Jr. in shallow right field, plating the go-ahead run with his 16th RBI of the season (tied for most in the National League).

The Dodgers’ offense wouldn’t tack on again, finishing the day with nine more strikeouts.

But that was enough on a day the team’s lockdown bullpen combined for 6 ⅔ scoreless innings — avoiding what would have been their first three-game series sweep since last July, and validating Roberts’ pregame confidence.

Freddie Freeman expected back Friday

When the Dodgers return to Los Angeles for the start of a six-game homestand Friday, they’ll get an important boost to the lineup.

As was initially expected, injured first baseman Freddie Freeman is on track to be back on the field Friday night, after missing the team’s last nine games after re-aggravating his surgically repaired right ankle slipping in the shower earlier this month.

Read more:After 'honor' of White House visit, Shohei Ohtani picking up where he left off in 2024

Freeman stayed back in California during the team’s trip this week, taking live batting practice at-bats against minor-league pitchers the last several days. More encouraging, according to Roberts, has been the way Freeman looked in baserunning drills the major-league coaching staff watched via video.

"Just looking at his gait running yesterday, I would say that it's better than it was when he started the season,” Roberts said.

“If nothing changes, he'll be in the lineup on Friday."

Freeman has played just three games so far this season. He sat out during the team’s season-opening series in Tokyo after feeling discomfort in the same area of his ribs he suffered torn cartilage during last year’s playoffs. And even before his shower mishap, his right ankle had not yet returned to 100% from the severe sprain he played through last October; an injury that led to a December debridement surgery to remove loose bodies.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Yankees went into the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game against the Detroit Tigers feeling pretty good about themselves.

After the offense was held in check for most of the last three days, the Yankees were three outs away from salvaging the final game of the series after scoring four late runs. Manager Aaron Boone tasked closer Devin Williams with sealing the win, but it didn’t go as planned.

After getting two of the first three batters Williams faced out, the Tigers loaded the bases. A wild pitch and a two-run single later, and the Yankees’ four-run lead was cut to one.

The Yankees skipper, not wanting to risk the win, pulled his closer for Mark Leiter Jr., who got the final out in the 4-3 win, ending New York’s three-game losing streak.

It’s alarming to see Williams, who was dominant last season pitching to a 1.25 ERA in 22 appearances with the Milwaukee Brewers after returning from injury, struggle so mightily.

But the Yankees skipper isn’t concerned with his closer’s performance so far this season.

“I don’t think it’s far off,” Boone said of Williams’ pitches after the game. “I thought we saw more velocity in there when he needed it. It’s just that next level of execution. He’ll get there. Credit to [the Tigers] too for laying off a lot of tough pitches but just being more in the zone.”

In four appearances this season, Williams has allowed four earned runs in just 3.0 innings pitched. We had the nail-biter on Opening Day when he allowed one run on two hits and a walk before ultimately completing the save.

And then we had the series finale in Pittsburgh this past Sunday when he allowed the ghost runner to score the winning run in the 11th, before nearly blowing the save on Wednesday.

Williams admitted he is still figuring things out this season and there’s nothing physically wrong with him, but he's still "figuring stuff out," and just needs more game reps and to better execute his pitches.

"I haven't felt like 100 percent myself up to this point, but I would say I'm getting closer," Williams told the media including the NY Post’s Greg Joyce after the game.

Entering Wednesday, Williams has a career 3.03 ERA in the months of March and April, by far the highest for any month in his career.

Boone pointed to Williams’ recent absence when he went on the paternity list as a part of his closer’s early-season struggles and thinks once the team gets into a “flow” the Williams of old will emerge.

“I’m confident this is going to be a distant memory as we continue to move forward,” Boone said. “He’s not far off. Just a little better strike-throwing. Once he starts doing that and dictating counts, then you’re going to see it because his stuff is not far off. This is his fourth outing. He’ll be fine, he’ll get through this. Just early part of the season."

The Yankees return home after a 3-3 road trip and will host the San Francisco Giants in the Bronx this weekend starting Friday.

Perhaps returning home, in warmer weather than Detroit, will help Williams come out of hibernation.

The Mets completed a 5-1 homestand on Wednesday that solidified their early weeks of the 2025 season as successful. Here is reporting from their first six games at Citi Field in 2025:

Brett Baty has to hit to stay; Luisangel Acuña, not as much

The Mets are not close to optioning Brett Baty back to Triple-A, according to sources, and that’s probably the right call. Why not take Baty on the road, away from the booing fans at Citi Field, and see if he can start to hit as he did in spring training? With the Mets' offense mostly clicking, they can carry a player who needs to dig for confidence, and who might be crushed by another demotion.

But the plain truth about Baty as a second baseman is that he must hit in order to stay. Mets people know that Baty is a corner infielder playing out of position, without the experience or the physicality to be a middle infielder. They understand that the transition to a new spot will bring errors like the one Baty made in Wednesday’s 5-0 loss to Miami and can’t blame him for it.

But the bat is a bigger issue. The idea last year in giving Baty reps at second base was to see if he could become the type of bat-first middle infielder prominent a decade or more ago. In the contemporary game, agility and defense are once again essential – and none other than Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns places a high value on up-the-middle glove work.

Because of this, the rangier Luisangel Acuña can win playing time without major offensive contributions, but Baty cannot. His bat is his carrying tool, period.

One of the factors helping to buy Baty more time is that potential replacements Donovan Walton and Luis De Los Santos are struggling offensively in Triple-A. But when Jeff McNeil returns from the injured list, Baty could go down without having proven he can hit in a big league regular season – unless, that is, he heats up soon.

For now, the Mets plan to give him time to do that.

The Clay Holmes transition is moving forward

An observation from talking to Clay Holmes after his first start with the Mets and then after his third: Holmes is already more confident in how to deploy his expanded repertoire in the new role than he was on Opening Day.

Following the opener in Houston, the always open and insightful Holmes admitted that he could have found spots to work in his new changeup. But when he found himself in competition, Holmes reverted to the comfort zone that made him an All-Star reliever: sinker/slider. Suddenly it was no longer spring training, the red light was on, and he did what he had to do to retire a heavily right-handed Houston lineup.

Contrast that to Tuesday’s win against Miami, when Holmes realized in the first inning that he did not have a feel for his sinker. In the second, he switched to heavy usage of a four-seam fastball. Mid-game, he went with a slew of sliders and sweepers.

Were these the type of in-game adjustments that Holmes would not have had time to employ as a short reliever?

“I think so,” Holmes said. “Part of it is just having the arsenal and the awareness to pivot. Instead of trying to force a sinker on a day like today when it was kind of tough early. … I kind of went with the four seamer and let that play up and away to the lefties. And I started getting some good counts. So, yeah, have few more pitches and especially after the first it’s like, what can I start doing a little different here? And I was able to pivot.”

That pivot is a strong sign that he is settling in. Consider this quote from Holmes, also after Tuesday’s game: “You try to get strike one, and then you build off it.”

That sounds like a jazz musician comfortable enough to learn the basic framework of a song and confident enough to improvise from there. And quite a difference from not even two weeks ago, when Holmes couldn’t quite nail down when to throw which pitch.

Mark Vientos will be fine

Any fears of a sophomore slump for Mark Vientos appear premature. The third baseman is just 5-for-42 on the season, but his at-bats have steadily improved.

One evaluator noted that Vientos was briefly out front lunging at pitches last week in Miami, but has already made the adjustment to allow the ball to travel to him. He walked five times on the homestand, repeatedly made hard contact, and does not look lost in his at-bats.

Hayden Senger might have answered a huge question about himself

For several years, folks in the Mets organization, not least among them catching instructor Glenn Sherlock, have viewed Hayden Senger as a big league defender.

The question following Senger was whether he could hit enough to serve as an MLB backup, or whether a .684 OPS in six minor league seasons ticketed him for life as an “org guy,” a non-prospect who helps the affiliates and might one day make a good coach. There is no shame in this; Sherlock himself was once an org guy with the Yankees before a long and distinguished coaching career.

But Senger, who has received more playing time than expected with Luis Torrens banged up, is 4-for-18 and does not look overmatched.

“What we're seeing is pretty impressive,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “His ability to manipulate the barrel [Tuesday] with a runner on second base, nobody out, and having the awareness of the situation: ‘You know what, I got to get the guy over.’ And getting the head out and driving the ball. Controlling the strike zone and walking. Getting a bunt down. Offensively, he's been really, really good.”

Senger is ticketed back to the minors once Francisco Alvarez returns from the injured list. But now the Mets know that they can call on Senger again, and opposing scouts know that he can be a viable backup to acquire. Count this as a pleasant silver lining of Alvarez’s and Torrens’ injuries.

Cold and stiff

Several Mets pitchers, including Holmes, Edwin Diaz, and Tylor Megill, saw their fastball velocities down a tick on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the Mets are not concerned. Mendoza attributed the group slowdown to the extreme cold, not any health issues.