Ceddanne Rafaela goes 3-for-5, homers in victory

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani would have hit for Alex Call in the eighth Sunday night had there been any runners on base at the time. As it turned out, there wasn’t, so Call got to hit for himself with none on and two outs. He singled, Tommy Edman walked and then Mookie Betts hit a three-run homer, giving the Dodgers a 7-5 lead that stood up against the Nationals. Barring something strange, Ohtani will DH and hit in the leadoff spot Monday.

It sounds like Ribalta will go on the IL, probably for the rest of the season. He’d been one of the Nationals’ most reliable relievers since being recalled at the beginning of May, amassing a 3.77 ERA in 43 innings. The extent of the injury will likely dictate whether he sticks on the 40-man roster this winter.

Betts’ homer off Will Dion came in the eighth and accounted for the final three runs of the game. He’s hitting .303 with five homers, eight doubles and 22 RBI in his last 25 games, raising his season OPS from .674 to .731.

All of the runs came in the fourth, when Wrobleski gave up a homer and then four more hits before being pulled. The Dodgers would rather be using Wrobleski as a reliever right now, but between Shohei Ohtani’s setback and Roki Sasaki and Eric Lauer landing on the IL, they’re lacking alternatives. They might go to Gavin Stone in this spot next weekend, assuming that he’s healthy after being scratched from his last Triple-A outing.

Good for Miller, who was making his first MLB appearance since May 24, 2025. It was his first win since Aug. 20, 2024. The one run he allowed came when he grazed Dylan Crews with a rain-slicked curveball in his first inning of work, forcing in a run. He retired seven in a row afterwards, though he did need Kyle Tucker to rob Harry Ford of a homer to pull that off. It’d be nice to see him stick around after this, but the Dodgers might swap him out in order to recall Emmet Sheehan prior to Monday’s game.

Tanner Scott had the night off after working three of the previous four days. Henriquez averaged 101.5 mph with his seven fastballs tonight. His last 13 appearances have seen him allow two hits, walk two and strike out 18 in 11 1/3 innings.

Alvarez allowed one run through four before giving up a leadoff single and an RBI double with one out in the fifth. That was enough to get him pulled, and Brad Lord came in and allowed the inherited runner to score. Alvarez did yield three runs or fewer for a seventh straight start, but with the early exits, he hasn’t won any of those. He’ll take on the Angels next weekend.

Abrams hit a 415-foot homer off Justin Wrobleski to begin the fourth inning. He’s the 15th different shortstop to hit 30 homers in a season at age 25 or younger. Colson Montgomery has also done it this year. The other active players to pull it off are Francisco Lindor (three times), Manny Machado, Trevor Story, Fernando Tatis Jr., Bobby Witt Jr. (twice) and Gunnar Henderson.

And his best at-bat was his lone out, which saw Kyle Tucker reach over the wall in right to rob him of a home run to right field. Ford is hitting .200/.319/.398 through 94 plate appearances. He seems ready to split time behind the plate with Keibert Ruiz next year.

Rodríguez, who is 0-3 with a 5.40 ERA in six starts for the Yankees, was available in relief this weekend but went unused. He’ll likely be replaced by a more traditional reliever on Tuesday.