Shohei Ohtani hit three doubles to improve his Major League Baseball-leading batting average to .371 in a 3-for-6 outing Wednesday as the Los Angeles Dodgers pummeled the Washington Nationals 11-2.
The reigning American League MVP continued his hot hitting after homering in the two previous games, including a 450-foot blast that reached the second deck in Tuesday's 4-1 win over the Nationals.
Ohtani drove in two runs and scored two while taking his MLB-best tally to 14 doubles for the season. He also leads the majors in slugging percentage (.695), on-base plus slugging (1.128) and extra-base hits (21).
Mookie Betts and Will Smith both went 4-for-6 to help the star-studded Dodgers lineup tally a season-high 20 hits at Nationals Park.
Ohtani extended his hitting streak to nine games in his first at-bat, comfortably rounding to second with a sharp line drive through center before breaking the ice on Smith's single.
He brought home Betts on a line drive to right for an 8-2 lead in the eighth, then made it 9-2 with a fly that hit the left-field fence in the ninth.
The Dodgers will aim to sweep the three-game series Thursday with Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting on the mound.
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