Dodgers 6, Nationals 2: Andy Pages singles in debut, Ryan Yarbrough goes long for the pen

Chad Moriyama 04/16/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Dropping the series opener against the Nationals at home is less than ideal, but the Dodgers thankfully bounced back tonight in a pen game that worked out almost ideally. While the offense still wasted a bunch of chances, they scratched together enough to support the pen in a 6-2 victory.

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Called up to start the pen game, Kyle Hurt got hit as hard as I’ve ever seen to start things off. A single and a lined double led to an out at the plate after an aggressive send. Another lined single followed, but he rebounded with a pop out, and then barely escaped after another lined shot found a glove in right.

The 2nd inning was much better, as he got a couple of groundouts and a fly out to get through a 1-2-3 frame on just eight pitches. Likely because of how hard he was hit to start, Dave Roberts would end his outing at that point.

On the other side of things was Patrick Corbin, who gave up back-to-back singles to Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani, then walked Freddie Freeman to load the bases. Unfortunately, Teoscar Hernandez hit the first pitch after that for a double play, which made it 1-0 but was obviously an exchange the Nationals were happy to take.

The 2nd led to another threat, this time behind Andy Pages, making his MLB debut. Seeing the first pitch of his career, he singled to right and started a rally.

Miguel Rojas followed with a walk, Austin Barnes singled to plate another run, and then Mookie doubled to push the lead to 3-0. That was all they would get, mostly thanks to Ohtani still running an 0-for with RISP as a Dodger.

Taking over for Hurt in the pen game was Ryan Yarbrough, as expected. However, a lead-off single and stolen base was eventually cashed in by a Jesse Winker two-run bomb that cut the lead to 3-2.

Credit to him, as he rebounded from that by retiring the next 14 batters in a row, giving the Dodgers much needed innings and quality that allowed them to take a lead into the 8th.

Meanwhile, Corbin continued to be surprisingly effective. After a clean 3rd, he worked around a one-out single and two-out single in the 4th as Ohtani’s 0-for with RISP continued. Thankfully, Enrique Hernandez finally broke through in the 5th, hitting his first home of the year for a 4-2 lead.

Corbin continued on anyway, giving up a pair of hard-hit balls (including to Pages) in the 6th but with nothing coming from them. However, after a lead-off double to Mookie in the 7th and a flyout advanced him to third, he got behind 3-0 on Freddie Freeman and the Nationals opted to intentionally walk him to corner things.

A reliever was brought in for Teoscar, who promptly crushed rolled one for a single to make it 5-2, even though that’s where the rally would end.

Speaking of the pen game, it was Joe Kelly taking over in the 8th. He got a strikeout and groundout to start, but then issued a 10-pitch walk and hit a batter, eventually getting out of it with a grounder to third.

The bottom of the inning saw the Dodgers add insurance behind the powerful bat of Miguel Rojas with a double, and then Mookie getting his FIFTH hit of the day to make it 6-2. An infield single followed and Freddie Freeman walked, but Mookie got caught trying to score from second on a really wild pitch to end the threat.

That pushed things out of save range, so it was Daniel Hudson to close it out in the 9th. He did so with a strikeout, groundout, and after a single, ended it with infield pop.

Good job, everybody.

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Run out with Andy.

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The win improves the Dodgers to 12-8 on the year.

The rubber match for the series will be early tomorrow at 9:10 AM HT/12:10 PM PT/3:10 PM ET. It’ll be Landon Knack making his MLB debut against Cole Irvin.

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