LOS ANGELES — On Date Night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers looked like they had a sure thing only to struggle to close the deal.
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The Dodgers cruised into the ninth inning with a five-run lead and a shutout only to trip up on the way to the exit. The Washington Nationals scored three runs in the ninth inning to make it awkward, but the Dodgers took a 5-3 victory on Friday night.
Just their fourth win in the past 10 games, it allowed the Dodgers to keep pace with the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves in the race for playoff seeding in the National League. The Dodgers and Braves have matching records (84-57), 3½ games behind the Brewers, but the Braves own the tiebreaker and would get the No. 2 seed (and a first-round bye) if they finish with the same record as the Dodgers.
Just 2 for 27 with runners in scoring position over the previous two nights, the search for a RISP hit ended early Friday.
After back-to-back walks to start the third inning, Mookie Betts came through with a one-out RBI single and Teoscar Hernandez replicated his walk-off winner from Thursday, driving another two-run double into the same left-center field gap.
Alex Call’s leadoff double in the fourth inning was about to be wasted when Nationals shortstop Nasim Nunez booted Tommy Edman’s two-out grounder, allowing Call to score and make it 4-0.
It wasn’t the resounding offensive breakout the Dodgers have yearned for – they still finished the night just 2 for 9 with RISP and had only one hit after the fourth inning. But it was more than enough for Dodgers starter Blake Snell, who went six scoreless innings, allowing five hits and two walks while striking out seven.
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Snell’s scoreless string nearly ended in the sixth inning when James Wood led off with a double. Wood was on his way to scoring on Andres Chaparro’s single to center field, but he slipped and fell rounding third base.
Given a chance to preserve his shutout, Snell pounced on it. He got Dylan Crews to pop out, struck out C.J. Abrams and broke Brady House’s bat, getting a soft grounder to third base to strand Wood.
After missing most of the season following elbow surgery, Snell has hit the ground dominating. In five starts since his return, he has allowed just three runs in 29 innings (no more than one in any of the starts) and held batters to a .152 average (15 for 99) while striking out 38 in 29 innings.
The Dodgers’ lead grew to 5-0 when Kyle Tucker hammered a line-drive homer into the right-field pavilion in the bottom of the sixth.
Edgardo Henriquez carried the shutout through the seventh inning, but the Nationals put runners at second and third on an error by third baseman Max Muncy and a ground-rule double off Kyle Hurt in the eighth. Tanner Scott got Abrams on a fly out to the warning track to strand both runners.
Seth Halvorsen gave up the shutout on three consecutive hits to start the ninth, prompting Manager Dave Roberts to call on Jack Dreyer to close it out. Dreyer gave up one run on a ground out then another on a double by Wood before getting the final out.
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More to come on this story.