After spending much of the past month raising questions about their offense, the Dodgers found another way to make history.
Mookie Betts completed a three-game sweep of the Nationals on Sunday by crushing a two-out, three-run homer in the eighth inning, turning a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 victory. Will Dion retired the first two batters before Alex Call singled and Tommy Edman walked, bringing Betts to the plate.
It was an improbable repeat of the previous night.
Trailing 4-2 in the seventh Saturday, Los Angeles received a one-out walk from Alex Freeland and a two-out single from Kiké Hernández. Edman then drove Clayton Beeter’s 2-1 slider into the right field seats for the decisive blow in a 6-5 win.
According to OptaSTATS, the Dodgers became the first MLB team to hit a two-out, game-winning homer worth at least three runs while trailing in the seventh inning or later in consecutive games.
That resilience offers another reason to believe Los Angeles can complete its World Series three-peat. The Dodgers have won four straight after losing six of eight, and the streak has come with Shohei Ohtani missing four games because of left knee and right biceps discomfort.
There is an obvious qualifier.
The rallies came against the lowly Nationals, who fell to 67-78 with their fourth consecutive loss. Washington sits only one game above the Mets in the NL East cellar, and the Dodgers finished their season series against the Nationals 6-0.
Beating Washington does not erase the offensive problems that threatened the Dodgers’ hold on a first-round bye. They entered Sunday only one game ahead of Atlanta for the National League’s second seed after producing a bottom-10 OPS over the previous 30 days.
October will offer less forgiving opponents. Still, the Dodgers did not need ideal circumstances, a healthy Ohtani or more than one remaining out to reverse either game.
Washington offered limited resistance, but Betts and Edman supplied something the reigning champions can carry into the postseason: evidence that Los Angeles is never entirely out of a game.
