Los Angeles Dodgers at Washington Nationals

Luck was not necessarily on Roki Sasaki's side on Sunday afternoon, but he didn't help himself at times either. Fortunately for him, the Dodgers continued to roll. Sasaki gave up a career-high six earned runs in his second start of the season, but the Dodgers came back for an 8-6 victory and a three-game sweep of the Nationals. The series finale was delayed by two hours and nine minutes due to a downpour of rain over Nationals Park, an eventuality that both teams had been prepared for heading into the weekend. The Dodgers trailed by five runs after Sasaki was done on the mound, but after a two-run homer from Dalton Rushing cut into the Nationals' lead in the sixth inning, they surged back in front with a four-run eighth keyed by a two-run single from Santiago Espinal, a run-scoring forceout from Kyle Tucker and a sacrifice fly from Shohei Ohtani. It was the Dodgers' fifth comeback win already this season and their biggest since April 2, 2025, when they also came back from a five-run deficit to beat the Braves, 6-5. While his final line was far from ideal, Sasaki was glad that he didn't put his team in an insurmountable deficit. "It was good to have a game like this," Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo, "and what I wanted to do was just focus on myself and just control what I can control." After holding the Guardians to one run over four-plus innings in his season debut last Monday, Sasaki was unable to take another stride forward, allowing the six runs on five hits (including two home runs) and three walks while striking out five Nationals hitters. He completed five innings on 90 pitches (57 strikes). Sasaki looked fairly sharp through two scoreless innings to open his start, and he ended on a solid note with a 1-2-3 fifth. But the third and fourth innings got away from him due to a combination of poor location and, yes, a bit of bad luck. Sasaki entered the bottom of the third inning with a 1-0 lead courtesy of Ohtani, who belted his second home run of the season a Statcast-projected 438 feet to straightaway center at 114.6 mph off the bat. But Sasaki was unable to keep the Dodgers on top, issuing a one-out walk to James Wood before serving up a two-run blast to Luis García Jr. on an elevated four-seamer.