Los Angeles Dodgers dedicated hitter Shohei Ohtani jogs back to the dugout during the fourth inning of the team’s baseball game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on Wednesday in Washington.
10:59 JST, April 25, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Shohei Ohtani had three doubles to improve his major league-leading batting average to .371, rookie Landon Knack earned his first win and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Washington Nationals 11-2 on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers racked up a season-high 20 hits en route to their third straight win, with Mookie Betts and Will Smith each having four hits and Andy Pages homering.
Nick Senzel homered for Washington. The Nationals were without a baserunner after the second inning.
Ohtani went 3 for 6 and hit RBI doubles in the eighth and ninth inning. He leads the majors in slugging percentage (.695), OPS (1.128), extra-base hits (21) and doubles (14).
A night after hitting a 120.7 mph solo shot in the ninth inning — the hardest-hit home run of his career — Ohtani hit a 115.6 mph double to right-center in the first inning off Jake Irvin (1-2). Ohtani passed two batters later on Smith’s single.
Betts pushed the score to 3-0 in the second on a two-run single against a tied infield.
Senzel led off the Nationals’ second with a home run into the bushes in the visiting bullpen in left field. Washington then scored again without putting the ball in plan, sandwiching two walks around a hit batsman before Joey Meneses drove in a run with a walk.
That was all the Nationals managed to achieve against Knack (1-1), who lost his debut against Washington last week. Knack retired his last 13 batters and struckout five in six innings.
Max Muncy hit an RBI single in the third and Lux chased Irvin with a two-out, two-run single in the fifth. Irvin allowed six runs on 12 hits in 4 2/3 innings while striking out three.
Pages homered with one out in the eighth off Tanner Rainey, and Betts and Ohtani followed with back-to-back doubles to score another run.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: RHP Blake Treinen (bruised lung) allowed three runs while striking out one in his first rehab appearance for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday.
Nationals: Washington placed OF Lane Thomas (sprained left MCL) on the 10-day injured list and recalled INF Trey Lipscomb from Triple-A Rochester. Thomas was injured in the fifth inning on Monday when he stole second base.
NEXT ONE
Los Angeles RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-1, 4.50 ERA) was scheduled to face Washington for the first time on Thursday, while the Nationals were set to start LHP MacKenzie Gore (2-1, 3.60) in the final of the three-game series.
