Freddie Freeman launched a high fly ball that right fielder James Wood jogged toward before stopping in his tracks. Freeman hoped the ball would stay fair. Nationals starter Miles Mikolas, the pitcher who’d just thrown it, hoped for anything but.

It was the fifth inning of a blowout. Mikolas had suffered enough against the two-time defending champs. But the baseball landed in the blue seats just inside the foul pole in right field. Freeman jogged around the bases. Mikolas, meanwhile, collected himself after allowing his fourth home run of the game in the Nationals’ 13-6 loss to the Dodgers.

“I did a lot of good things and I did some bad things,” Mikolas said. “The unfortunate part about baseball is three really good pitches, you just get one out. And you make three really bad ones and it can be five, six, seven runs.”

Mikolas allowed a club-record 11 earned runs in his second outing with the team; nine came on homers. And the Nationals fans who filed into Nationals Park for the team’s home opener Friday left disappointed.

“First off, just want to say the crowd today, the fan attendance, the noise they were making, how into the game they were, just really appreciate that,” manager Blake Butera said. “Apologize, it was lopsided pretty early there but just wanted to say thank you to the fans.”

Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts hit a three-run homer and two-run homer, respectively, in the third inning. Andy Pages added a two-run blast in the fourth. Freeman’s followed in the fifth.

The Nationals (3-4) returned from a promising road trip to a sold-out crowd hoping to maintain their momentum. The pregame festivities included a host of new names and faces. One of the newest, Joey Wiemer, got a loud cheer acknowledging his hot start to the season.

Butera and the starters jogged in from center field, a trek that Butera joked wasn’t part of the job description when he took the Nationals’ manager job. Mikolas said the pregame flyover fired him up. He started off the game by punching out Ohtani and worked a clean first frame.

“Maybe if we had a flyover like every inning, I would’ve been a little better,” he said. “The fans showed up. It was great. I wish I had done a better job for them.”

On the field, the new players and staff signaled change. So, too, did the scene inside the Nationals’ clubhouse before first pitch.

The Nationals’ pitching approach was on display in the clubhouse. Some of the televisions showed MLB Network or ESPN. Others had a rotating series of slides about pitching priorities for the team’s staff.

Five stats quantified by a percentage appeared on screens with a detailed description of what they meant on the left side. On the right side, the screen displayed where the Nationals’ pitchers ranked in those respective categories. Pitchers at the top of the chart were in green. Those toward the bottom were in red.

Some stats displayed were familiar. Others were a bit more detailed. Butera said the Nationals want players to understand what they do well and what the organization prioritizes. Even still, as the Nationals attempt to reorganize their franchise, Friday’s performance was a reminder that these new changes won’t immediately result in wins.

The Nationals are still in the process of developing at the major league and minor league levels. Mikolas, the 37-year-old righty who the Nationals signed to a one-year, $2.25 million deal this offseason, was brought in to fill the gaps in the meantime.

Before Mikolas’ collapse, CJ Abrams came to the plate in the bottom of the first with two runners on and two outs. Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan threw a four-seam fastball outside of the zone. Abrams pulled it for his second three-run homer in as many games, pushing Washington ahead 3-0.

“People are getting on base ahead of me,” he said. “So just trying to get a good pitch to drive and I’ve been hitting it.”

Mikolas retired the side in the second. His second time through the order, the Dodgers were more aggressive early in the count, he and Butera said.

The Dodgers scored five runs in the third, two in the fourth and four in the fifth. Washington tacked on two runs in the eighth inning but the damage against Mikolas made any comeback essentially insurmountable.

One of the stats displayed on the screen pre-game was whiff percentage, a common metricused to explain the percentage of swings and misses. Mikolas only earned seven whiffs on 40 swings (18%) Friday afternoon. The Dodgers put 12 balls in play against Mikolas that came off the bat at 95 mph or higher.

Teoscar Hernández had the final one, a one-out double in the fifth that sent Mikolas to the dugout.

“Miles almost had to be perfect against these guys and he did a great job the first couple innings,” Butera said. “Ohtani, Tucker, Betts, Freeman, all those guys. And you’re still talking about Teoscar seven. ... It’s just such a deep lineup.”

Tucker added an RBI single off Gus Varland. Two innings later, Tucker launched a ball off Ken Waldichuk that headed toward the seats. Neither had to wonder where it’d land.