Nationals mash 5 homers to topple Dodgers

Nathaniel Lowe hit two home runs, James Wood and Luis Garcia Jr. hit back-to-back long balls in the fourth inning and the visiting Washington Nationals turned five total homers into a 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.

CJ Abrams added a home run for the second consecutive night as the Nationals won for just the second time in their last 14 games. Right-hander Jake Irvin (6-3) gave up two runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings, with no walks and seven strikeouts.

Andy Pages, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez hit home runs for the Dodgers, who lost for the second time in eight games and dropped to 2-3 against the Nationals this season. Right-hander Dustin May (4-5) gave up three home runs, all solo shots, in six innings for Los Angeles.

The Nationals had just one hit when Wood opened the fourth inning with a 451-foot home run to center field. It was his team-leading 21st homer of the season and his fourth in five games against the Dodgers. One pitch later, Garcia hit a home run to center, his seventh.

The Dodgers had just two hits off Irvin into the fifth inning when Pages led off with a home run, extending his career-high total to 16.

Lowe went deep against May to lead off the sixth for a 3-1 lead, the 100th of his career, before Smith responded for the Dodgers in the bottom of the sixth with a home run to center, his ninth.

Irvin departed after he struck out Teoscar Hernandez following Smith's home run. It was his second solid start at Los Angeles in two seasons after he held the Dodgers to six scoreless innings at Dodger Stadium last April.

Abrams' two-run home run in the seventh put Washington up 5-2. Lowe finished off his first multi-homer game of the season in a two-run eighth.

Hernandez hit his 14th home run of the season for Los Angeles just inside the right-field foul pole in the ninth inning.

--Field Level Media