WASHINGTON — James Wood hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning that helped the Washington Nationals hold off Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 on Monday night for their third straight victory.
Ohtani homered, tripled, singled and walked, finishing 3 for 4 with two RBIs.
It was a nice bounce-back for Ohtani after he went 1-for-11 in a weekend series at Philadelphia.
MacKenzie Gore (1-1) pitched six solid innings for the Nationals, and Wood’s drive off reliever Anthony Banda gave them a 5-2 lead. Keibert Ruiz followed with an RBI double off Matt Sauer.
Mookie Betts and Will Smith each had a run-scoring single for Los Angeles in the eighth to cut it to 6-4, but Kyle Finnegan got five outs for his fourth save.
With two runners aboard in the ninth, Finnegan retired Betts on a game-ending grounder.
After starting 8-0, the Dodgers have lost three of four.
Ohtani tied it at 2 when he drilled a 2-0 fastball from Gore over the right-field fence for a two-run shot in the third, his fourth homer in 12 games.
Nathaniel Lowe gave Washington a 3-2 lead with an RBI single in the bottom half.
With two outs in the fifth, Ohtani’s first triple of the season caromed off the wall in right-center just above the glove of center fielder Dylan Crews.
Gore gave up two runs and five hits. He struck out seven and walked one, throwing 58 of his 100 pitches for strikes.
Dodgers starter Dustin May (0-1) allowed three runs — one earned — and three hits in six innings. He walked three, struck out one and retired his final 11 batters.
With the Dodgers down two runs and Max Muncy on third base with two outs in the ninth inning, Ohtani walked on a full-count splitter from Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan.
“He had some really good takes there,” Finnegan said. “He knows the situation, too. He knows I’m not going to give him anything too good to hit. He’s a pro. He worked his at-bat and I was able to sneak back in there 3-2. If I was going to get him out, it was because he was going to chase something out of the zone and he did his job and took ball four.”
Mookie Betts then grounded out to end the game.
Ohtani, however, focused more on the called third strike he took with a runner aboard in the eighth.
“My approach doesn’t really change — it’s to really get on base,” he said through a translator. “That fourth at-bat I really should have just taken a hack and see what happens."
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts thought Ohtani was unselfish in his final plate appearance when he drew a walk with the game on the line.
“It’s kind of hard to say he was struggling, but tonight he was locked in,” Roberts said. “Even that last at-bat to earn the walk versus Finnegan and not try to chase a cycle speaks to being a team player and passing the baton. He had an excellent night.”
On the pitching side, Ohtani is throwing bullpens and getting closer to live batting practice as the two-way superstar rehabs from elbow surgery.
“I feel pretty good with where I am at physically,” he said. “There’s some limitation on how hard I am supposed to throw or how many types of pitches I’m allowed to throw. Once that’s cleared, I will be able to do all of the above. I feel pretty good about throwing live BP."
Key moment
Batting leadoff for the first time this season, Wood delivered the game’s biggest hit when he sent a slider 395 feet over the center-field wall for his second homer of the year.
Key stat
Gore struck out seven in the first four innings and has 25 strikeouts in his first three starts.
Up next
Dodgers LHP Justin Wrobleski makes his first start of the season Tuesday night in place of injured ace Blake Snell. Washington had not announced a scheduled starter yet.
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