While we may still be buzzing from Shohei Ohtani’s titanic home run on Tuesday night, it was the bottom of the Dodgers batting order that fueled the comeback win over the Nationals in the series opener in Washington D.C.
Entering this series, Dodgers hitters in the seventh, eighth, and ninth spots in the batting order were hitting just .168/.235/.248, among the bottom four in the majors in OPS, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and batting average. It’s been a theme in the early going this season.
But on Monday, it was Kiké Hernández batting seventh, and his sixth-inning single brought home the tying run, the first score of the game for the Dodgers.
Still tied at 1-1 in the eighth inning, James Outman pinch-hit for Hernández and doubled off right-hander Hunter Harvey to score Teoscar Hernández for the go-ahead run.
No. 8 hitter Andy Pages was hitless in four at-bats on the night, but he followed Outman’s double by fouling off eight pitches in a 13-pitch battle that ran up Harvey’s pitch count to 37 and got him out of the game.
Miguel Rojas, who started at shortstop against southpaw Patrick Corbin, greeted new Nationals reliever Jacob Barnes with an RBI single to plate Outman with an insurance run. Rojas had two hits on the night and also stole a base.
The 7-8-9 hitters on Tuesday combined for four hits, drove in the Dodgers’ first three runs. They helped lengthen the lineup, and contributed to making Washington use five relief pitchers in a game in which their starter pitched into the sixth inning.