Shohei Ohtani had three doubles to improve his major league-leading batting average to .371, rookie Landon Knack got his first victory and the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the Washington Nationals 11-2 on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers had a season-high 20 hits en route to their third straight victory, with Mookie Betts and Will Smith each having four hits and Andy Pages homering.
Nick Senzel homered for Washington. The Nationals didn’t have a baserunner after the second inning.
Ohtani went 3 for 6, hitting RBI doubles in the eighth and ninth innings. He leads the majors in slugging percentage (.695), OPS (1.128), extra-base hits (21) and doubles (14).
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
A night after ripping a 118.7 mph solo shot in the ninth inning — the hardest-hit home run of his career — Ohtani smashed a 115.6 mph double to right-center in the first inning off Jake Irvin (1-2). Ohtani came around two batters later on Smith’s single.
Betts pushed the lead to 3-0 in the second on a two-run single against a drawn-in infield
Senzel led off the Nationals’ second with a homer into the bushes in the visiting bullpen in left. Washington then scored again without putting the ball in plan, sandwiching two walks around a hit batsman before Joey Meneses pushed in a run with a walk.
That was all the Nationals managed against Knack (1-1), who lost his debut against Washington last week. Knack retired his last 13 batters and struck out five over six innings.
Max Muncy hit an RBI single in the third and Lux chased Irvin with a two-out, two-run single in the fifth. Irvin allowed six runs on 12 hits in 4 2/3 innings while striking out three.
Pages homered with one out in the eighth off Tanner Rainey, and Betts and Ohtani followed with back-to-back doubles to score another run.
