Dodgers 6, Nationals 5: Tommy Edman plays the hero as Dodgers come back to beat the Nats

The Dodgers took the middle game against the Nats with a 6-5 comeback win. Tyler Glasnow struggled a bit, but the offense picked him up and the bullpen held on for their 85th win of the season.

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The Dodgers struck in the 1st thanks to some help from the Nationals’ defense. Freddie Freeman got hit by a pitch and Mookie Betts singled him to second. Kyle Tucker grounded to first for what looked like an inning-ending double play, but Cade Cavalli and Abimelec Ortiz had some miscommunication covering the bag and Cavalli caught the ball but wasn’t off the bag.

Teoscar Hernandez continued his torrid homestand with an RBI single, and Hunter Feduccia followed that up with a seeing-eye single for a second run. 2-0 Dodgers after the 1st.

Unfortunately, after cruising in the 1st, Glasnow continued the time-honored Dodger tradition of not throwing a shutdown inning. CJ Abrams led off the 2nd with a single and stole second. A Brady House fly out moved Abrams to third, and he scored on a Jose Tena sac fly. 2-1 Dodgers.

He only barely escaped a bigger inning with a huge strikeout.

Glasnow turned in a solid 3rd but struggled again in the 4th. House led off with a single and moved to second on a grounder, then a two-out single from old friend Keibert Ruiz tied the game, and he took second on Tucker’s throw. Dylan Crews followed that up with an RBI double to give the Nats their first lead of the night. 3-2 Nationals.

Cavalli bounced back very nicely after his 30-pitch, 2-run first inning. He got through six innings with only one more hit (an Alex Freeland single) and struck out Teo on his 103rd pitch of the night, which matched a season-high. His final line: 6 innings, 4 hits, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks.

Glasnow also bounced back after his rough fourth inning. He issued just a walk in the 5th, thought he was also bailed out on an insane catch by Edman in center.

Ankle looks pretty good.

My thoughts exactly.

Glasnow went 1-2-3 in the 6th and came back out for the 7th, but gave up a leadoff double to Crews and got pulled for Alex Vesia. Vesia got the first out on a ground out, by Daylen Lile doubled to left center to score Crews and close the line on Glasnow.

Glasnow’s final line: 6+ innings, 6 hits, 4 ER, 3 BB, 8 Ks. 4-2 Nationals.

Unfortunately for the Nats, they needed their bullpen to get nine outs. Clayton Beeter was the first out of the bullpen and got two outs, but walked Freeland and gave up a single to Enrique Hernandez. Edman came up and was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against Cavalli, but crushed a hanging slider to give the Dodgers a 5-4 lead in the 7th.

The Dodgers added on in the 8th. Erik Tolman stayed in after finishing the seventh and gave up a leadoff single to Betts and walked Tucker. He got Teo to ground out before being pulled for Jack Sinclair, who struggled to throw strikes. He seemingly walked a pinch-hitting Will Smith, but Ruiz challenged and got it overturned for the second out of the inning. He then did walk Freeland to load the bases, and hit Alex Call with the first pitch to make it 6-4. Kiké worked the count full, but struck out on ball four to end the threat.

Meanwhile, the Dodger bullpen had fewer issues. After Vesia gave up Glasnow’s fourth run, he struck out the next two he faced. Evan Phillips came on for the eighth and went 1-2-3 to set up Tanner Scott for the save.

Scott got two quick outs, but ran into trouble closing the game out. James Wood crushed a grounder to first that got past Freeman and reached second. Lile hit a ball up the middle that took a weird hop past Betts to score Wood and make it a one-run game.

Andres Chaparro followed by doubling down the third base line, and the ball took a friendly Dodger bounce to keep the runners on second and third. Thankfully, Scott struck Abrams out to end the game. 6-5 Dodgers.

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NL SeedingRecordGB
Brewers88-55–
Dodgers85-572.5
Braves84-583.5

The win gives the Dodgers their 85th of the season. They remain 10.5 up on Arizona (who won today) and move 11 up on the Padres, who lost to the Yankees. Atlanta lost so the Dodgers take control of the 2 seed in the NL and the second bye, and Milwaukee also lost to move the Dodgers 2.5 back for the top seed in the NL and the best record in baseball.

They look for a sweep tomorrow and haven’t yet announced a starter, but Justin Wrobleski and Bobby Miller figure to be a part of it. Lefty Andrew Alvarez goes for the Nats. It’s a rare Sunday night game, with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM PT.

About Alex Campos

I've been writing about the Dodgers since I graduated from Long Beach State, where I covered the Dirtbags in my senior year. I'm either very good or very bad at puns.