Friday afternoon in Washington did not go as the home team planned. Not even close.
The Los Angeles Dodgers dismantled the Nationals in front of their own crowd, pouring on 13 runs behind a lineup that looked every bit like a team built to win a championship. The final score — 13-6 — was not a fluke. It was a statement, delivered inning by inning, home run by home run, with the kind of cold efficiency that makes opposing managers stare blankly at the dugout wall.
The Dodgers had dropped their previous contest against Cleveland just two nights prior, falling 4-1 in a game that felt flat from the start. Consider Friday’s performance a direct response. The kind that leaves no room for interpretation.
Washington actually drew first blood, jumping out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning. For a brief moment, Nationals Park had something to cheer about. Then the third inning arrived, and Los Angeles put up five runs. Then two more in the fourth. Then four in the fifth. By the time the Dodgers were done, the crowd had gone quiet and the scoreboard told a story that no spin could soften.
Ohtani and the Dodgers Offense Go Absolutely Nuclear
The damage started slow — Washington actually jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning — but Los Angeles flipped the script in the third and never looked back. The Dodgers finished with 16 hits and five home runs spread across the lineup. This was not a one-man show. It was a full roster performance.
Here is who did the most damage on Friday
- Shohei Ohtani — 2-for-6, 1 home run, 4 RBI
- Kyle Tucker — 3-for-6, 1 home run, 2 RBI
- Andy Pages — 3-for-5, 1 home run, 2 RBI
- Mookie Betts — 2-for-6, 1 home run, 2 RBI
- Freddie Freeman — 1-for-5, 1 home run, 2 RBI
Five home runs. Thirteen runs. A .390 team batting average on the day. Teoscar Hernández also made his presence felt, going 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored — a quietly excellent afternoon that got overshadowed only because everyone else was also hitting the cover off the ball.
The Dodgers did not just beat Washington on Friday. They put on a clinic.
Mikolas Had No Answer for Los Angeles
Washington starter Miles Mikolas lasted just 4.1 innings and surrendered 11 earned runs on 11 hits, including four home runs. His ERA on the day ballooned to a painful 22.85. The outing was one of those afternoons a pitcher spends the rest of the season trying to forget — an early exit, a battered pitch count sitting at 87, and a deficit so deep that no bullpen arm could realistically climb back out of it.
Ken Waldichuk followed out of the bullpen and gave Washington two cleaner innings, but the damage was long done. The pitching staff as a whole threw 170 pitches and posted a team ERA of 13 for the game. It was the kind of afternoon that makes a pitching coach lose sleep.
Emmet Sheehan earned the win for Los Angeles, going 5.2 innings and allowing four earned runs. He was not at his sharpest, but he did not need to be. The offense had his back from the third inning on.
CJ Abrams Kept Nationals From Total Embarrassment
To Washington’s credit, shortstop CJ Abrams refused to disappear. He finished 2-for-5 with a home run and a game-high 4 RBI, providing the Nationals with their only genuine highlight on an otherwise forgettable afternoon. Abrams has the talent to be one of the better young shortstops in the league, and Friday was a reminder of that — even if the team around him had little to offer.
James Wood and Luis García Jr. each had a pair of hits as well, giving Washington a respectable 11-hit total on the day. The problem was the timing. The Nationals could not string hits together when it mattered, going 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position while Los Angeles feasted at nearly every opportunity.
Dodgers What This Win Really Means
This was the first game of a three-game series at Nationals Park, with Game 2 set for Saturday and the finale on Sunday. The Dodgers, who split their two-game set against Cleveland earlier in the week, now carry real momentum heading into the weekend.
With Ohtani locked in, Tucker contributing immediately after joining the roster, and the rest of the order looking dangerous top to bottom, Los Angeles looks like exactly what everyone expected them to be heading into 2026 — a machine that does not need a warm-up lap.
Washington will need to regroup fast. The pitching staff needs answers. The offense needs better situational hitting. And the crowd at Nationals Park will need a reason to believe the next two games will look different.
Based on what the Dodgers showed on Friday, that will not be easy to come by.
