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Dodgers storm back from 5-run deficit to sweep Nationals

April 5, 2026

Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Sunday, April 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

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Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Sunday, April 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Even with one hand tied behind their back, the Dodgers still pack a punch.

The Dodgers arrived in the capital with an offense that hadn’t quite kicked into gear during their season-opening homestand. But they scored 31 runs and hit nine home runs in a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals, coming back from a five-run deficit to win 8-6 Sunday afternoon with a lineup lacking four regulars.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made Sunday a day of rest for Kyle Tucker, Max Muncy and Will Smith — at least to start — and Mookie Betts went on the injured list Sunday with a strained oblique muscle in his right side. But they rallied from a 6-1 deficit after four innings, scoring four times in the eighth inning to take the lead.

Another uneven start – fueled by a bad-break single off the first base bag – from Roki Sasaki put them in that hole.

The Dodgers had taken Sasaki’s first start of the season – he pitched into the fifth inning against the Cleveland Guardians and allowed just one run – as a positive sign. There were more through the first two innings against the Nationals as he held them scoreless and struck out two (one on his splitter and one on the new slider-cutter he has adopted).

In the third inning, though, he walked a batter and left a high fastball over the plate that Luis Garcia Jr. hammered for a two-run home run.

The fourth inning was even more problematic.

Sasaki walked another batter, C.J. Abrams, who stole second. But Sasaki was ready to strand him when he struck out Jorbit Vivas and got Keibert Ruiz to roll over a 3-and-1 slider and hit a two-out ground ball down the first base line.

The ball hit first base, though, and bounced over Freddie Freeman’s head into right field, Abrams scoring on the play.

The bad break was regrettable. What Sasaki followed it with was worse.

Another single put two runners on for James Wood, who crushed an 0-and-2 splitter that rolled over the heart of the plate for a three-run home run.

Sasaki retired the side in order in the fifth, striking out two more. The third pitch he is trying to add was promising – he got six of his 14 swings-and-misses on the slider – and he built up to 90 pitches. But the two home runs he allowed overshadowed that, and he left with his ERA having made an early-season leap from 2.25 to 7.00 after his second start.

Tucker, Betts, Smith and Muncy were missing from the lineup but those left behind did still include Shohei Ohtani. He went 2 for 4, sending his second home run of the season on a 438-foot journey for the Dodgers’ first run.

Dalton Rushing hit his first home run of the season, a two-run drive in the sixth inning that brought the Nationals’ lead into view.

Nationals reliever Cionel Perez did the rest. He faced five batters in the eighth inning and retired none of them. Freeman singled, Andy Pages doubled and Alex Call walked to load the bases with no outs. Santiago Espinal drove in two to make it a one-run game, 6-5.

Smith came off the bench to draw a walk and re-load the bases. Perez was done, and former Dodgers prospect Clayton Beeter came in to face another pinch-hitter, Tucker. He drove in the tying run with a groundout, and Ohtani gave the Dodgers the lead with a sacrifice fly.

Teoscar Hernandez hit a solo home run in the ninth to make things easier for Edwin Diaz, who closed it out.

Dodgers storm back from 5-run deficit to sweep Nationals Orange County Register

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Dodgers storm back from 5-run deficit to sweep Nationals

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