WASHINGTON — Rafael Furcal hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning Thursday night, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Washington 7-6 to hand the Nationals their 100th loss.
Furcal’s drive off Ron Villone (4-6) was his fourth hit of the game. Ramon Troncoso (5-4) pitched 1 1/3 innings to get the win, and Jonathan Broxton finished for his 36th save.
The victory reduced the Dodgers’ magic number to one for clinching a playoff berth.
The Nationals, who were 59-102 last season, are the first NL franchise to lose 100 games in consecutive seasons since the San Diego Padres, who dropped 102 in 1973 and 1974. In five seasons in Washington, the Nationals already have matched the number of 100-loss seasons the franchise had during its 36 seasons as the Montreal Expos — and that includes the formative 110-loss season as an expansion team in 1969.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, are closing in on back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time since 1995-96.
They got going early against the Nationals, with singles from leadoff hitter Furcal, Andre Ethier and Manny Ramirez off J.D. Martin producing a 1-0 lead in the first. Pitching coach Steve McCatty visited the mound, and it did no good: Matt Kemp hit Martin’s next pitch over the wall in left-center for a three-run homer, giving him 100 RBIs this season.
Comical moment: When Martin then struck out James Loney for the first out of the game, the fans broke out in mock applause. The people running the public address system, oblivious to Martin’s rough start, cranked out “Can’t Touch This.”
It took awhile, but the Nationals caught up. They scored three in the second off Vicente Padilla, but the Dodgers picked up one in the third. The Nationals scored one in the fourth; the Dodgers scored an unearned run in the fifth. The Nationals finally tied it at 6 in the sixth with two runs.
The pace was laborious: Padilla used up 103 pitches in five innings of work, and Martin threw 68 pitches in just three innings.
The odd-even streak was broken when the Dodgers didn’t score in the seventh, but Furcal put Los Angeles ahead in the eighth. The Nationals had a chance to tie in the bottom half, but Willie Harris was thrown out at home by Ethier on Adam Dunn’s two-out single to right.
