Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched six shutout innings and Teoscar Hernandez homered as the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the host Washington Nationals, winning 2-1 on Thursday.
Yamamoto, a rookie right-hander, gave up four hits and one walk and struck out seven while throwing 97 pitches. One of his least comfortable moments came when he snagged a line drive from Washington’s Eddie Rosario in the fifth inning.
Yamamoto (2-1) was greeted by a hug from manager Dave Roberts when he reached the dugout at the end of the sixth.
Alex Vesia worked a scoreless seventh with three strikeouts before Daniel Hudson gave up a run in the eighth. Evan Phillips worked a perfect ninth with two strikeouts for his seventh save.
Mookie Betts, Enrique Hernandez and Freddie Freeman all had two hits as the Dodgers won their fourth consecutive game. After a productive first two games in the series, Los Angeles star Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-4, striking out twice.
Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore (2-2) gave up only the home run among his seven hits allowed. He walked two and struck out four.
Joey Meneses had three of Washington’s seven hits. The Nationals, who left seven runners on base, only scored four runs in the series and closed a 2-4 homestand.
Teoscar Hernandez led off the second inning with his sixth long ball of the season and his first home run in 11 games. Before the right fielder’s blast, he had gone 5-for-20 against the Nationals this season.
It was the second homer Gore allowed across his five starts this year.
Through five innings, the only hits for Washington were doubles by Meneses and Jacob Young.
Freeman’s eighth-inning double increased the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0. The Nationals scored on Meneses’ one-out single in the bottom of the eighth.
Los Angeles won four of six meetings in the season series.
–Field Level Media
