Dodgers roll with Anderson in control
Starter pitches eight scoreless innings
WASHINGTON >> A steady rain fell during Monday’s game at Nationals Park. For most of the night, though, Tyler Anderson wasn’t on the mound long enough to get wet.
Anderson breezed through the rebuilding Washington Nationals’ stripped-down lineup, taking a perfect game into the sixth inning and completing eight scoreless innings as the Dodgers pounded the Nats, 10-1.
The win was the Dodgers’ eighth in their past nine games — and one of the easiest.
“Everything was working,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Anderson, who has allowed just two runs in 15 innings over his past two starts. “We were sort of up against it as a pitching staff and he stepped up again. He joked with me. He said every time it seems he pitches I’ve told him we needed that outing. We have needed it. Today it was just complete command of his arsenal, working ahead, working quick, kept the defense involved and had a nice perfect game for a minute there.”
It was longer than a minute, though it did go quickly.
Anderson retired the first 16 batters in order, needing just 50 pitches to get through five innings – including seven each in the fourth and fifth innings.
His bid for perfection ended with one out in the sixth inning when Nationals second baseman Cesar Hernandez lined a double
into the left-center field gap.
“Not a lot,” Anderson said when asked how much he was thinking about his perfect game chances. “That’s pretty early. If I was really concerned, I think you probably don’t throw a fastball 3-1 (to Hernandez). You try to stay a little more stingy there. Throw a changeup or something. But in that situation, we’ve got a big lead. My job is to throw as many innings as I can.”
Anderson went to that changeup a lot. He threw it 37 times in his 101 pitches, more than his four-seam fastball (35). The Nationals swung at it 28 times, missed 10 times and put it in play weakly most of the rest.
“That was fun to watch, fun to play behind,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said.
“When he’s got the good stuff going — I’ve faced him a lot — the changeup never seems to get to you. He’s got the cutter and the heater plays up because you’re so worried about his other offspeed pitches.”
Anderson was exposed to the elements longer in the seventh inning, allowing three singles to load the bases with two outs. Freeman ran down a blooper over his head to keep the Nationals scoreless.
The left-hander struck out the side in the eighth, running his total for the night to eight strikeouts without a walk. It was his longest outing since his
only career complete game in August 2020 for the San Francisco Giants against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“Just tried to fill up the strike zone and get ahead,” Anderson said. “Throw a lot of strikes and force the guys to put the ball in play early.
“The cutter wasn’t great so I relied a little more on the changeup . ... They were just aggressive. They were swinging a lot, swinging early. I feel when you throw a lot of strikes guys try to come out and do that early. It can go one of two ways. They can put the ball in play and they’re hits. But a lot of times they put the ball in play and you can get some outs.”
While Anderson was cruising through a Nationals lineup featuring Juan Soto, veteran DH Nelson Cruz and an assortment of prospects and filler, the Dodgers’ hitters were romping around Nationals Park as freely as a bunch of bigheaded presidents.
Everyone in the Dodgers’ starting lineup had at least one hit except DH Edwin Rios. Mookie Betts, Freeman and Gavin Lux had multi-hit games. Betts, Freeman and Trea Turner — the top third of the Dodgers’ lineup — combined for six hits and drove in seven runs (and Turner was pulled in the sixth inning). Lux was on base three times (a walk and two singles) and scored all three times.
“The rest of the lineup just feeds off those guys,” Roberts said of the BettsFreeman-Turner troika.
Betts was on base four times, four different ways — a single, a two-run double (on a fly ball Soto lost in the lights), a walk and a hit by pitch — and scored twice. He leads the majors with 42 runs scored and has scored a run in each of his past 11 games, one short of the L.A. Dodgers record (Rafael Furcal) and two short of the franchise record (Zack Wheat). Roberts said he plans to give Betts the day off Tuesday.
“It’s crazy,” Turner said. “I knew he was scoring a lot of runs. But 41 runs — or 42 or 43, whatever he’s at now — that’s ridiculous. He’s on pace for 160 or so.”
Freeman was 0 for 10 in the final two games at Philadelphia, only the third time this season he has gone consecutive games without a hit. He made up for it with three Monday, including two doubles, tying him for the MLB lead with 16.
“I think we kind of expected that when we signed him,” Turner said of Freeman’s consistent production. “We knew what we were getting. He’s done it for so long. He’s probably a Hall of Famer — even though he might not like to hear that — probably a Hall of Famer already.”
After a pregame tribute video and an ovation before his first at-bat, Turner did his part to remind Nationals fans what they are no longer getting. He drove in Betts with a ground out in the first inning then added two more RBIs on a sixthinning single.
Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor each had RBI doubles.
The Nationals avoided being shut out with one out left. Nelson Cruz doubled off Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford with two outs in the ninth and scored on a single by Josh Bell.