Dodgers snap three-game losing streak behind early burst, seventh-inning rally

Dave Roberts had a feeling as he walked around the clubhouse on Wednesday afternoon.

Over the previous five days, his once-unbeaten Dodgers team had lost four times. The night before, they did so embarrassingly on a frigid night in the country’s capital, striking out 15 times in a six-run loss to the rebuilding Washington Nationals.

In that defeat, Roberts was particularly perturbed by the club’s quality of at-bats — or lack thereof.

“The at-bats collectively haven’t been ‘team’ at-bats, and the results are showing,” Roberts said Tuesday night.

"I just don’t think 15 strikeouts with our ballclub should happen,” he reiterated in his pregame media scrum Wednesday.

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By then, however, Roberts had noticed a renewed intensity from the group in their afternoon preparation — hopeful that Tuesday’s blowout, and an overall frustrating first trip in which they’d already clinched back-to-back series losses, would serve as the catalyst for a much-needed getaway day win.

“You don’t want to get swept by these guys. That wouldn’t be a good thing,” Roberts said, with the Dodgers having already lost twice this week at Nationals Park. “I think our guys have a good look today. There’s a sense of pride … I think you’ll see a different focus today. I expect us to perform today.”

In a 6-5 win over the Nationals, the Dodgers performed just enough; building, then blowing, an early four-run lead before finally prevailing behind a go-ahead seventh-inning rally.

With the sun finally out, and this week’s freezing East Coast temperatures finally warming up, the Dodgers got off to a blistering start Wednesday.

Shohei Ohtani hit a leadoff single. Mookie Betts put two aboard with a walk. Tommy Edman drove them both in with a triple into the right-field corner. Then Teoscar Hernández left the yard for a two-run shot.

Four batters in, it was 4-0.

The lead, however, wouldn’t last.

Nationals starter Jake Irvin found a groove, retiring 18 of the 21 batters he faced the rest of the way in what turned into a decent six-inning start.

Dodgers starter Landon Knack, on the other hand, faltered in his return to the big-league roster, giving up three runs in the bottom of the first (it would have been more if not for an inning-ending play Betts made deep in the hole at shortstop) then two more while getting pulled in the third.

The Nationals’ 5-4 lead lasted until Irvin exited the game at the start of the seventh — opening the door for the Dodgers to finally answer back.

Andy Pages started the rally by whacking his second home run in as many nights, busting out of his early-season slump with a game-tying drive to left in an 0-and-2 count.

Then, Ohtani reached on a booted grounder to second. Edman drew a two-out walk. And with runners on the corners, Hernández lifted a bloop single just over the head of second baseman Luis García Jr. in shallow right field, plating the go-ahead run with his 16th RBI of the season (tied for most in the National League).

The Dodgers’ offense wouldn’t tack on again, finishing the day with nine more strikeouts.

But that was enough on a day the team’s lockdown bullpen combined for 6 ⅔ scoreless innings — avoiding what would have been their first three-game series sweep since last July, and validating Roberts’ pregame confidence.

Freddie Freeman expected back Friday

When the Dodgers return to Los Angeles for the start of a six-game homestand Friday, they’ll get an important boost to the lineup.

As was initially expected, injured first baseman Freddie Freeman is on track to be back on the field Friday night, after missing the team’s last nine games after re-aggravating his surgically repaired right ankle slipping in the shower earlier this month.

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Freeman stayed back in California during the team’s trip this week, taking live batting practice at-bats against minor-league pitchers the last several days. More encouraging, according to Roberts, has been the way Freeman looked in baserunning drills the major-league coaching staff watched via video.

"Just looking at his gait running yesterday, I would say that it's better than it was when he started the season,” Roberts said.

“If nothing changes, he'll be in the lineup on Friday."

Freeman has played just three games so far this season. He sat out during the team’s season-opening series in Tokyo after feeling discomfort in the same area of his ribs he suffered torn cartilage during last year’s playoffs. And even before his shower mishap, his right ankle had not yet returned to 100% from the severe sprain he played through last October; an injury that led to a December debridement surgery to remove loose bodies.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.