Dodger Stadium is the proud owner of the most home runs in baseball this season. The long-ball trend might not be an anomaly.
On Saturday night, the Dodgers and Washington Nationals combined for eight home runs, the most in a Dodgers game this season, but only three came off L.A. bats.
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Dodgers right-hander Dustin May gave up three of those home runs, all solo shots, in a 7-3 loss to the Nationals. Andy Pages, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández hit home runs in the fifth, sixth and ninth innings, respectively.
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In the fourth inning, Nationals slugger James Wood used all of his 6-foot-7, 234-pound frame to launch a sinker from May to break a scoreless game. Pages only took one step from his position in center field as he tracked the ball off Wood’s bat — he knew where it was headed.
The 451-foot solo blast gave the Nationals (32-45) a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Three-hole hitter Luis Garcia Jr. followed Wood with a home run.
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“The solo homers, they suck, but they’re solo homers,” May said. “Going back-to-back — that’s not what you want to see.”
For being a middle of the pack offense — ranked 18th overall in runs scored — the Nationals flexed their muscle with their young stars. CJ Abrams socked a two-run home run in the seventh off Dodgers reliever Jack Dreyer, his second in as many games.
Washington’s Nathaniel Lowe celebrates in the dugout after hitting his second home run of the game in the eighth inning Saturday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Wood and Abrams were acquired by the Nationals in the Juan Soto trade with San Diego in 2022. The former prospects now represent the heart of the Nationals lineup.
May gave up a home run in the sixth to Nathaniel Lowe — who also hit a homer in the eighth inning for his first multi-home run game. May gave up five hits, struck out five and walked two, tossing six innings for the third time in his last five starts.
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Outside of Pages, Smith and Hernández’s home runs, the Dodgers (47-31) threatened to score when Mookie Betts and Tommy Edman reached via singles in the fifth. Nationals starting pitcher Jake Irvin, however, struck out Freddie Freeman to end the threat. Irvin struck out seven and walked none in 5 ⅓ innings.
“I haven’t been very good for a while,” said Freeman, who is batting .182 over his last 15 games. “Just trying to figure it out, did the net drill many, many times [the] last few days, but still not clicking.”
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He continued: “The swing’s still in Arizona, I think.”
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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t disagree with his star first baseman’s assessment. He said through conversations with Freeman, it’s clear that he’s still trying to find a fix.
Freeman is still batting .322 on the season — good for seventh-best in Major League Baseball.
“He’s certainly his toughest critic, but I’ve talked to him numerous times, and he just hasn’t found something that clicks, where he feels like himself, since spring training, which certainly is a long time,” Roberts said. “But Freddie’s going to be as honest as can be, and it’s not going to stop him from working.”
Eight home runs at Dodger Stadium is unusual, but low humidity in L.A. could be a factor in helping hard hits soar. Climate change researchers have even pondered the effect that warmer climates could have on home runs, with a 2023 study in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society stating that more than 500 home runs since 2010 could be credited to global warming.
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“I just thought those were really good, well-executed pitches,” Roberts said of the Wood and Garcia home runs. “But the air, as it starts to get a little bit warmer, the ball does fly here.”
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani strikes out during the third inning Saturday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Across the last six seasons, Chavez Ravine has ranked top five in home runs on five occasions. In the 43 games the Dodgers have played at home in 2025, there have been an average of 3.39 home runs per game (146 home runs overall and 23 more than second-place George M. Steinbrenner Field).
Shohei Ohtani, who will make his second pitching start of the season Sunday afternoon, went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. Roberts said he would “leave it open-ended” for how long Ohtani would pitch.
Glasnow update
Tyler Glasnow (right shoulder) is scheduled to pitch two innings for triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. Relief pitcher Luis Garcia (right adductor) is set to appear for single-A Rancho Cucamonga on Sunday as well.
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Both rehabilitation outings are their first since joining the injured list.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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