How Does Tommy Edman Do It? Dodgers Rally Past Nationals 6-5

How do you think he does it? What makes him so good?

There are nights when a player has a big game. Then there are nights when a player seems to take possession of the game and simply refuses to give it back.

Saturday night belonged to Tommy Edman.

Batting leadoff and playing center field for the Dodgers, Edman almost single-handedly took the game into his own hands. He robbed the Nationals of extra bases with a spectacular leaping catch at the wall, then provided the biggest blow of the night with a three-run homer in the seventh inning that turned a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 Dodgers lead.

By the time the Dodgers finally closed out their 6-5 victory, Edman had managed to leave his fingerprints on virtually every important part of the evening.

Apparently, somebody forgot to tell him that September baseball was supposed to be stressful.

The Dodgers came out swinging against Nationals starter Cade Cavalli, putting two runs on the board in the first inning. Freddie Freeman was hit by a pitch with one out, Mookie Betts followed with a single, and Teoscar Hernández brought Freeman home with an RBI single. Hunter Feduccia followed with another RBI single, giving Tyler Glasnow an early 2-0 cushion.

It didn't last.

Washington cut the lead in half in the second and then moved in front in the fourth. Keibert Ruiz, returning to the lineup after being hit in the catcher's mask by a foul ball Wednesday, delivered an RBI single, and Dylan Crews followed with a run-scoring double.

Glasnow wasn't terrible, but he wasn't exactly painting a masterpiece, either. He worked six innings, allowing four runs on six hits while striking out eight and walking three.

“Nothing was really clicking today,” Glasnow said. “So I think it's just a matter of just go out and compete as well as you can.”

Which, as explanations go, is about as Glasnow as it gets.

The Dodgers trailed 4-2 entering the seventh, and that was when Edman decided the evening needed his attention.

Earlier, Edman had already made the defensive play of the game, tracking down a Daylen Lile drive and going airborne at the wall in left-center to rob Washington of extra bases. Glasnow could only watch as Edman crashed into the padding and somehow emerged with the baseball.

“It was a big boost to all of us,” manager Dave Roberts said.

The bigger boost was still coming.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Alex Freeland and Kiké Hernández reached base against Clayton Beeter. Edman fell behind in the count 2-1, got a slider he could handle and sent it 389 feet into the right-field seats.

Three runs.

Dodgers 5, Nationals 4.

The guy who had just saved a run with his glove had now supplied three with his bat.

How does he do it?

Maybe it's versatility. Maybe it's instinct. Maybe it's simply the increasingly useful ability to recognize that somebody needs to take charge and deciding that somebody is going to be him.

“You can put him anywhere on the diamond — plays good defensively, has good at-bats,” Roberts said after the game. “He has a knack for the big hit, and he’s playing his tail off.”

That pretty much covers it.

The Dodgers added an insurance run in the eighth when Alex Call was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, giving Los Angeles a two-run cushion heading into the ninth.

And because no Dodgers victory is apparently allowed to arrive without at least a little turbulence, Tanner Scott was summoned to finish it.

Scott struck out the first two hitters he faced, both swinging, and appeared to be on his way to a clean three-up, three-down save.

Naturally, that would have been far too easy.

A pair of singles and a double followed, cutting the Dodgers' lead to 6-5 and putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.

Scott, apparently satisfied that everyone had received sufficient cardiovascular stimulation for one evening, finally finished the job by striking out CJ Abrams to end the game.

Three strikeouts.

Three hits.

One save.

There are easier ways to close out a baseball game. The Dodgers apparently have chosen not to explore them.

The victory was the Dodgers' third straight, and perhaps more importantly, it was another game in which the offense found a way to manufacture runs when the situation demanded it. They did it without Shohei Ohtani in the lineup, with Edman stepping into Ohtani's customary leadoff spot and Teoscar Hernández moving into the designated hitter role.

Roberts liked what he saw.

“It’s just good to see our offense come to life and get timely hits, take a lot of walks, create stress, and get some big hits,” he said. “It’s time to go, and I think our guys understand that.”

Edman certainly appears to understand it.

“We've had a few consecutive days of having big hits,” he said.

That might be understating things just a little.

On Thursday, Teoscar Hernández delivered the walk-off double that finally buried August.

Friday, Blake Snell turned in six scoreless innings and Kyle Tucker rediscovered his home-run swing.

Saturday, Edman robbed a potential extra-base hit and then hit the three-run homer that changed the game.

The Dodgers are beginning to look a little more like the team everyone expected to see when September arrived.

And if Edman keeps playing like this, the question may eventually become less how does he do it? and more where, exactly, would the Dodgers be without him?

For one night, anyway, Tommy Edman had the answer.

Take the game over.

The Dodgers will try to make it four straight Sunday night when Justin Wrobleski faces Washington left-hander Andrew Alvarez in the series finale.