WASHINGTON (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ eight-game winning streak to start the season --- their first since 1955, when the franchise was in Brooklyn --- didn’t hint a choppy stretch could soon arrive.
A week after heading to the East Coast for the first time this year, the Dodgers return home after dropping four of their first five games on a trip to Philadelphia and Washington before rallying for a 6-5 victory over the Nationals on Wednesday.
“I don’t want to say you’re desperate for a win at times, but we didn’t want to leave here without one,” relief pitcher Kirby Yates said. “I think everybody knows what we’re capable in here of doing, and it was a tough game to win, and we won it.”
Yates (1-0) was part of a six-pitcher effort that combined for 6 2/3 innings of one-hit, shutout relief. Teoscar Hernández hit his fifth home run of the season in the first inning and drove in three runs, including a go-ahead bloop hit in the seventh.
Los Angeles avoided getting swept by Washington for the first time since August 2008.
“It never feels good losing a series, but when you win that last one to salvage it, it’s not so bad,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said.
It seemed the Dodgers could be in for a comfortable day when it led 4-0 four batters into the game. Hernández capped that stretch with a two-run shot to left-center off Washington starter Jake Irvin, but that was all Los Angeles could muster until the seventh.
The Dodgers also struggled because of injuries to their rotation. Justin Wrobleski was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City to take injured left-hander Blake Snell’s turn Tuesday and allowed eight runs in five innings of an 8-2 loss.
Los Angeles summoned Landon Knack from Oklahoma City while sending Wrobleski back Wednesday, and the right-hander gave up five runs in 2 1/3 innings.
The bullpen kept the Dodgers within 5-4, and Andy Pages tied it with a solo shot with one out in the seventh. When Hernández came up four batters later with runners on first and third, he looped a two-out single just beyond second baseman Luis García Jr.’s reach to give Los Angeles the lead.
“That’s the at-bats you want to win the game,” Hernández said. “It’s not always going to be the big swings that’s going to score runs.”
It was far from a smooth finish, with Blake Treinen allowing runners to reach second and third in the ninth before James Wood grounded out to second to end it. But it was sufficient for Los Angeles to join division rival San Diego as the first two teams to reach the 10-win mark this season.
“When you’re expected to win 162 games in a season and you lose four in a week, then it could feel like the world’s ending,” Kiké Hernández said. “But at the end of the day, we have 148 more. At some point, we’re going to play (lousy) baseball and it just seemed like this was the week to do that.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Patrick Stevens, The Associated Press
