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Dodgers snap funk with 5-homer game to rout Nationals

April 3, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Any concerns about the Dodgers’ offense created by a prosaic homestand were long gone Friday afternoon.

Rude guests at the Washington Nationals’ home opener, the Dodgers hit five home runs in a 13-6 victory over the Nationals in the first game of a six-game road trip.

Each of the first four hitters in the Dodgers’ lineup – Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman – plus Andy Pages homered as the Dodgers scored more runs in their first road game of the season than they did in the final four games of the homestand combined (10). Eleven of them were charged to Nationals starter Miles Mikolas, a club record that he will be trying to work off his ERA all season now.

That foursome at the top of the Dodgers’ lineup had been less than fearsome on the homestand, combining for a .172 (15 for 87) start. They were 8 for 20 with 10 RBIs and six runs scored Friday.

The most significant of the home runs might have been the first. Ohtani sent a three-run home run 401 feet into the right-field seats to start the Dodgers’ scoring in the third inning. It was his first extra-base hit of the season and turned things around after a 3-for-19 start.

Tucker followed with a single, the first of his three hits in the game and his first multi-hit game as a Dodger, and Betts drove the Dodgers’ second home run of the game over the left-field wall. The five-run burst was the Dodgers’ biggest inning of the season.

They piled on from there. Pages hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning then Freeman did the same in the fifth. The Dodgers batted around that inning, scoring twice more on RBI singles from Teoscar Hernandez (one of his three hits in the game) and Tucker.

One theme from the homestand did continue in Washington. For the sixth time in seven games, the Dodgers’ opponent scored first and the Dodgers were down multiple runs before they scored their first.

Starter Emmet Sheehan gave up a rocket double – 109.8 mph off James Wood’s bat – on his first pitch of the game, walked a batter with two outs then gave up a three-run home run to C.J. Abrams.

The Dodgers’ offensive outburst smoothed away that rocky start. Sheehan allowed another run in the third inning but made it through 5⅔ innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and three walks. He struck out just two and continued to show a drop in his velocity this season. After averaging 95.4 mph on his fastball in 2023 and 95.6 mph in his return from Tommy John surgery last season, Sheehan’s fastball averaged 93.8 mph in Friday’s start.

More to come on this story.

Orange County Register

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Dodgers snap funk with 5-homer game to rout Nationals

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