Following what was arguably the Dodgers single worst game of the 2025 regular season against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on Tuesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘ team pulled off what was arguably their single best game of their 14-game-old 2025 regular season against those same Washington Nationals on Wednesday afternoon – thanks to some timely and much-needed offense and some timely and much-needed defense.
First the offense:
For the second day in a row, struggling Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages slugged a home run, this one a solo shot to left with one out in the top of the seventh inning off of Nats right-hander (and former Dodger) Eduardo Salazar, to tie the game at 5-5.
As Dodgers fans well know, the 24-year-old La Habana, Cuba native has had a horrible start to the 2025 season, slashing a demotion-worthy .162/.311/.270/.581 heading into play on Wednesday.
“Since Spring Training, the team told me my spot wasn’t secure, I had to go win a job,” Pages recently told reporters. “So the stress accumulated, and I think that these games, not getting the results, it accumulated even more. Thankfully … I was able to get that weight off of me.”
And now the defense:
With the Dodgers up 6-5 and with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Washington had the tying and winning runs on second and first base respectively. That’s when Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams ripped a hot grounder towards the number four hole for what absolutely looked like would be a game-tying single to right.
Not on Kiké Hernández‘s watch.
The extremely popular 33-year-old San Juan, Puerto Rico native, who was filling in at first base for injured Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, was playing very wide of the bag and made a sensational diving stop of Abrams’ hot grounder and somehow managed to throw to second base, where Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts was able to force out advancing Nationals center fielder Dylan Crews for the second out of the inning.
The game ended one play later when Nats left fielder James Wood grounded out to Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, who fired across the diamond to … Kiké Hernández.
Certainly very worthy of mention is Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández‘s first-inning two-run home run to center to give his team an early 4-0 lead. Teo finished the day going 2-for-5 and driving in three of the Dodgers six runs.
Granted, “It’s still early,” as many like to say. But they / we needed this one, as the Padres, Giants, and Diamondbacks also won on Wednesday.
Play Ball!
* * * * * *