WASHINGTON (AP) — The top of the Dodgers’ batting order could only stay quiet for so long.
Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman — the first four hitters in the Los Angeles lineup — all homered Friday in over the Washington Nationals. It was Tucker’s first home run since joining the Dodgers. It was Ohtani’s first RBI of the season.
“Rome isn’t burning,” manager Dave Roberts cracked.
There wasn’t much panic from Roberts before the game, even with Ohtani (.167), Tucker (.174), Betts (.136) and Freeman (.208) all in a bit of a funk through the first six games of the season. Then the first six hitters went down in order before the Dodgers broke through in the third.
Ohtani’s three-run shot to right tied the game at 3, and Betts connected for a two-run homer two batters later.
“It’s a new day. That’s really it,” Betts said. “Nobody in here is panicking or anything. One week, tough week. That probably is not going to be our last week that we don’t hit well.”
Andy Pages hit a two-run homer in the fourth that made it 7-4, then Freeman added a two-run shot in the fifth. Tucker’s solo homer in the seventh capped a three-hit day for the outfielder who signed a $240 million, four-year deal to go from the Chicago Cubs to the Dodgers.
“It was nice. First homer — first actual ball I’ve hit in the air well, out in front and everything,” Tucker said. “You can’t complain when you hit a homer.”
The first four hitters for Los Angeles combined to go 8 for 21 with four homers, 10 RBIs and six runs. The Dodgers tagged Miles Mikolas for a career-high 11 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
“I think a little bit of it is we’ve had a lot of history with Mikolas,” Roberts said “We’ve seen him, know some of his tendencies. Outside of that, they were just not missing today.”
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