Bullpen comes to the rescue as Dodgers open trip with win over Nationals

WASHINGTON — After weeks of worrisome late-game blunders, there was finally some redemption for the Dodgers bullpen Tuesday night.

On a night their starting pitcher failed to complete five innings, and their lineup managed only one run before the final couple frames, it was five other numbers that keyed a 4-1 Dodgers win over the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.

0. 0. 0. 0. 0.

As in, the five goose eggs the Dodgers once-struggling bullpen put on the scoreboard.

Entering the night, the bullpen had been among the biggest concerns of the Dodgers’ underwhelming 13-11 start to the year. The group was without injured right-handers Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen (the latter will begin a rehab assignment this week). It had compiled a 4.35 ERA through the season’s opening month, the 10th-worst mark in the majors. And it had been a common culprit during the club’s 3-6 homestand in Los Angeles last week.

But against the rebuilding Nationals on Tuesday, four relievers —Michael Grove, Alex Vesia, Daniel Hudson and Evan Phillips — helped the Dodgers overcome an early offensive lull, then hang on to a narrow lead late, combining for 4 2/3 scoreless innings for a victorious start to the team’s nine-game trip.

While starter James Paxton surrendered just one run in his fourth outing of the year for the Dodgers (14-11), the veteran left-hander again struggled with his command. He walked three batters (he has 17 walks this year) and struck out just one, forcing manager Dave Roberts to replace him with one out in the fifth after 89 laborious pitches.

On the other side of the plate, meanwhile, the Dodgers lineup was kept silent by the Nationals’ own left-handed veteran, Patrick Corbin.

Last year, Corbin’s 5.20 ERA was third-worst in the majors. This season, his 8.06 mark entering Tuesday ranked dead last, coming off a five-run, 6 1/3-inning at Dodger Stadium last week.

In his rematch against the Dodgers, though, the 34-year-old Corbin looked like his former All-Star self. He spun 5 1/3 shutout innings. He walked three batters, but gave up just three hits while collecting three strikeouts.

It was only once Corbin left the game that the Dodgers finally found some life at the plate. Later in the sixth, they manufactured a two-out rally that culminated with Kiké Hernández’s tying single. In the eighth, James Outman and Miguel Rojas put the Dodgers in front with an RBI double and single, respectively. Then, in the ninth, Shohei Ohtani supplied an exclamation point with his sixth home run of the year, clobbering a 450-foot, second-deck blast that exploded off his bat at 118.7 mph.

Underpinning the entire performance, however, was the Dodgers bullpen.

Grove stranded the two runners he inherited from Paxton in the fifth, then two outs — with a walk in between — in the bottom of the sixth.

Vesia took over from there, stranding Grove’s runner with a deep flyout before returning to the mound for a scoreless seventh inning.

Once the Dodgers took the lead in the top of the eighth — a rally that started with a single and steal from Teoscar Hernández — Roberts’ late-game decisions were easy.

Hudson, who has emerged as the club’s preferred set-up man with a 2.45 ERA this year, worked around a two-out walk in the bottom of the eighth.

Phillips had a more adventurous appearance in the ninth, loading the bases on three walks and a single — the Nationals ran into one out on the bases — before ultimately surviving with his sixth save and a sub-1.00 ERA.