WASHINGTON -- When Shohei Ohtani goes, so do the Dodgers. And that was true in a big way in Friday afternoon's 13-6 victory over the Nationals.
Ohtani launched his first home run of the season in the third inning, a three-run blast that tied the contest at 3 before the Dodgers surged to a lead that they did not relinquish. Two batters later, Mookie Betts put the Dodgers on top with a two-run shot of his own. The five runs the Dodgers plated in the that inning alone were more than they had scored in four of their first six games of the season.
Donning their new blue road jerseys for their first game away from Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers' bats woke up in a big way in the opener at Nationals Park, featuring five homers from Ohtani, Betts, Andy Pages, Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker.
"Freddie called it earlier," manager Dave Roberts said. "He said that we're wearing our Spring Training jerseys, so we're going to start hitting again. I don't know if it was the jerseys or what, but that was his call early on."
Entering Friday, Ohtani reached base at a .423 clip, but he only went 3-for-18 at the plate -- all singles. It was only the third time in his big league career that he had gone homerless in six or more games to open a season (also 2022 and '24).
With one big swing, Ohtani put the drought to an end. After striking out looking in his first at-bat against Nationals right-hander Miles Mikolas, Ohtani jumped on the second pitch he saw his next time to the plate -- a changeup at the bottom of the zone -- and pulled it a Statcast-projected 401 feet at 109.5 mph off the bat. Ohtani tracked the ball until it landed in the outfield seats.
"He looked up to the skies, too, after," Roberts said. "So greater powers might have something to do with that one, too."
Ohtani extended his on-base streak to 38 games, the longest active streak in the Majors. The two-way superstar also owns the longest scoreless streak among starting pitchers (22 2/3 innings), a one-of-a-kind accomplishment for a one-of-a-kind player. But he was not satisfied.
"On pitches that I should be making impact, I’m not quite able to do that to the extent that I should be able to," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after his season pitching debut on Tuesday. "That's the part that I'm not quite happy about."
Ohtani wasn't the only Dodger scuffling at the top of the order. Entering Friday, Ohtani, Tucker, Betts and Freeman combined to slash .172/.287/.276 through six games. Several other lineup regulars weren't faring much better, with Pages being the notable exception.
It can be easy for teams and fans alike to overreact to results early in the season, when the sample size of at-bats is so small that batting averages can surge or plummet in a single day. The Dodgers weren't pleased that they weren't performing up to their offensive potential, but they saw no reason to do anything rash, like changing their 1-2 of Ohtani and Tucker atop the lineup.
A lot can change in a matter of innings. After Ohtani and Betts' long balls off Mikolas, Pages and Freeman also took the Nationals' starter deep in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively. It was the first time that the Dodgers scored at least 11 runs off a single pitcher since May 2, 2021, against the Brewers' Alec Bettinger.
Tucker joined in with his first Dodgers homer in the seventh inning. And all of a sudden, the L.A. lineup was back to being as dangerous as it was supposed to be.
“You’ve got probably less room for error than with most lineups," Mikolas said. "They’re top to bottom, one of the best lineups in the league. A lot of great players over there. You can only tiptoe that line for so long before either they figure it out or they get your mistakes.”
Ohtani is far from the only Dodgers hitter capable of doing damage. But more often than not, it starts with him.
"I think when Shohei plays well, I think that it's a weight off everyone," Roberts said. "Because he's our best player, and for him to perform, I think that everyone falls in line. I know all those guys are happy to leave the ballpark today, and hopefully this spurs some more hits for Shohei, too."