Mookie Betts and the bullpen lead Dodgers past the Nationals

Yarbrough shook off the homer and retired 12 straight batters from the fourth through seventh innings, and Kiké Hernández drove his first homer of the season, a 431-foot shot to center, in the fifth for a 4-2 lead.

Betts led off the seventh with a double and later scored on Teoscar Hernández’s RBI infield single for a 5-2 lead, and Betts drove in the final run with an RBI single to right field in the eighth for a 6-2 lead.

The promotion of Pages, the 23-year-old Cuban native who had season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder just three weeks into 2023 — an injury suffered on a swing in his first triple-A game — headlined a flurry of pregame moves.

The Dodgers also recalled right-hander Kyle Hurt, a former USC standout who threw two scoreless, three-hit innings as an opener Tuesday, and right-handed reliever Eduardo Salazar, and optioned right-hander Ricky Vanasco and left-hander Nick Ramirez, who each threw two perfect innings of relief Monday.

Outfielder Taylor Trammell was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot for Salazar. Top pitching prospect Landon Knack is expected to be called up from triple-A Oklahoma City to start Wednesday’s series finale against the Nationals.

With outfielder Jason Heyward’s recovery from a lower-back injury going much slower than expected and utility man Chris Taylor mired in a brutal one-for-33 season-opening slump, Roberts said Pages would start against Nationals right-hander Jake Irvin on Wednesday and get a considerable “runway” to play over the next few weeks.

“I’ll try to get him in as much as I can to see what we have,” Roberts said of Pages, who hit .371 with five homers and 15 RBIs in 15 games for Oklahoma City this season. “He’s a complete player. A very heady player. He lives and breathes baseball. Very good defender. He’s got plus power.

“And coming back from this really traumatic surgery he had last year, he’s been nothing but fantastic since spring training. We’re really excited.”

Hurt gave up a C.J. Abrams single, a Winker double and a Lane Thomas single to open the game but a perfectly executed relay from right fielder Teoscar Hernández to second baseman Kiké Hernández to Barnes at the plate cut down Abrams, who tried to score from first on Winker’s double to right.