Dodgers overcome Roki Sasaki clunker, erase five-run hole in comeback win

WASHINGTON –– Sunday was one of those games the Dodgers had no business winning.

Not after Roki Sasaki gave up six runs in five innings. Not with Mookie Betts out injured and Will Smith, Kyle Tucker and Max Muncy all getting off days. And certainly not after facing a five-run deficit entering the sixth inning, then a three-run hole going into the eighth.

Alas, on a rain-delayed getaway day at Nationals Park, the Dodgers battled back, flipped the script and secured a weekend sweep over the Washington Nationals, scoring the game’s final seven runs in an 8-6 win.

“It was a good fight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We just didn’t quit.”

The turnaround started as soon as Sasaki completed his calamitous outing –– one that featured two home runs, three walks and a bit of bad luck when a potential inning-ending grounder in the fourth ricocheted off the first-base bag to spur a four-run rally.

Even in the face of a 6-1 deficit, the Dodgers (7-2) kept stringing together late-game hits.

Dalton Rushing had the first big swing, launching a two-run blast in the top of the sixth that put the club within striking distance.

Then, in the eighth, the team completed the comeback against overmatched Nationals reliever Cionel Pérez, who failed to record an out while letting the game slip away.

The inning started with a single from Freddie Freeman. Andy Pages followed with a double down the left-field line. Alex Call loaded the bases after that, reaching base for the fourth-straight time by drawing a four-pitch walk. 

That set the stage for Santiago Espinal, who recorded his first Dodgers hit with a two-run single to center.

Pérez was mercifully removed after loading the bases again on a walk to the pinch-hitting Smith. But by then, the damage was already done.

A fielder’s choice grounder from Tucker, in another pinch-hit at-bat, tied the game. A sacrifice fly from Shohei Ohtani –– who opened the scoring Sunday with a 438-foot homer back in the third inning –– gave the Dodgers the lead.

Thanks to four combined innings of scoreless work from the bullpen, there would be no further late-game dramatics. Instead, Teoscar Hernández hit a ninth-inning insurance homer into the Dodgers bullpen, where closer Edwin Díaz was preparing for what would be his third save with the team.

“It is a mark of our ball club that every out matters, every game matters,” Roberts said.

From five runs down, to a first series sweep of the season.

From a game they shouldn’t have won, to one they wrapped up with relative ease.

What it means

That, even on a day so many other things went wrong, the Dodgers always have enough firepower to mount a late comeback.

In doing so Sunday, they got Sasaki off the hook for what should’ve been an ugly loss to the Nationals (3-6).

In the third inning, he started losing his command, and ultimately gave up a two-run homer to Luis García Jr. on an elevated fastball. The fourth was even worse, with the right-hander coming unraveled after a potential inning-ending grounder from Keibert Ruiz kicked off first base for an RBI single.

While that was a moment of bad luck, what followed was decidedly not. Sasaki gave up another single to José Tena, then hung an 0-2 splitter to James Wood that was clobbered for a three-run shot.

On any other day, his struggles would’ve been the story.

He can thank the team’s offense for ensuring that it wasn’t.

Who’s hot

The Dodgers’ late-game offense.

Sunday was already the team’s fifth come-from-behind victory –– and in all of them, they’ve trailed by multiple runs early on.

It might not be a sustainable recipe for success. But it does epitomize the relentless nature of their deep and talented offense.

And this time, they didn’t even need superstar contributions, instead being led by Call (2-for-3 with two walks), Hernández (2-for-4 with his home run after being bumped up to the No. 3 spot in the order), and Espinal and Rushing (two RBIs apiece).

Who’s not

In the wake of Betts’ injury, Alex Freeland is slated to get more regular starts at second base.

The Dodgers can only hope it snaps his poor start to the season.

Since hitting a home run and a double in his season debut, Freeland has looked more like the hitter who had a .190 batting average in the big leagues last season and a .125 average in an underwhelming spring.

After going 0-for-3 Sunday, he now has just one hit and three walks in his last 19 plate appearances. Even more concerning is that –– for a player tasked first and foremost with taking quality at-bats –– he has struck out two times in each of his last four games.

Up next

The Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays begin a World Series rematch on Monday at Rogers Centre. Justin Wrobleski is expected to get his first start of the season in the opener, opposite former Dodger and future Hall of Fame right-hander Max Scherzer.

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