The Washington Nationals had themselves a historic day at home against the Milwaukee Brewers, as the team dinged home runs all around the ballpark en route to a 15-2 victory. Plus, the Los Angeles Dodgers made history of their own while improving their MLB best record.
The Nationals hosted a home run party
It started in the bottom of the first inning when Bryce Harper hit a home run off of Michael Blazek down right field to give the Washington Nationals a 2-0 lead. However, Blazek's nightmare would not really start until the bottom of the third inning, after Max Scherzer drew a walk.
First, leadoff man Brian Goodwin hit a home run out to right field. Then Wilmer Difo stepped up and hit a bomb out to right center field. Lastly, Bryce Harper hit his second homer out to left center field and then Ryan Zimmerman stepped up and did the same.
Blazek then got Daniel Murphy to fly out, but let Anthony Rendon hit a home run over left field. In the fourth inning, Wily Peralta came in for the Milwaukee Brewers and let Zimmerman hit his second home run of the day. Later in the inning, he let Jose Lobaton hit the Nationals eighth and last homer of the day.
Nationals epic day makes all kinds of history
The Washington Nationals became only the 6th team ever to hit five home runs in one inning.
Ironically enough the last team to do so was the Brewers back in 2006. They also became the 8th team to ever hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers, with 2011 Arizona Diamondbacks being the last team to accomplish that. Of the 8 teams to hit four consecutive home runs, the Nationals were the first ones to do so with their one-through-four hitters.
The eight home runs in one game also tied the franchise record for the most in a game, which happened back in 1978 when the team was the Montreal Expos. Unfortunately for the Brewers Michael Blazek, he became the 9th pitcher since 1900 to allow six home runs in a game. He was also the first pitcher to ever surrender five home runs in one inning.
Today also happened to be his first career start after 108 career relief appearances.
Dodgers get Thursday off after making history
The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Minnesota Twins 6-5 on Wednesday. The team took yesterday off, before gearing up to play the San Francisco Giants today. With the victory, the Dodgers moved to a still MLB best record of 71-31 (.696), despite losing pitcher Clayton Kershaw earlier in the week.
This marked the earliest in franchise history (by date) that the team has reached 40 games over .500. With the victory, they also improved their MLB best 29-31 (.483) record when trailing in games this season. That winning percentage is better than 13 teams currently have for the entire season.
