WASHINGTON — In the first inning of their first World Series game, in 1916, the Brooklyn Robins went down in order against the Red Sox at Braves Field in Boston. A young right fielder named Casey Stengel made the third out.

The Robins did mount a rally that day, with four runs in the ninth, and in later years they would score as many as six runs in various October frames. But in 33 trips to the postseason, across more than 2,150 innings, the franchise now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers had never produced anything like the sixth inning at Nationals Park on Sunday night.

The Dodgers seized Game 3 of this National League division series by scoring seven times in the sixth. They had entered the back half of the game by then, trailing by a run, and they knew who awaits them in Monday’s fourth game: Max Scherzer, the ferocious right-hander who might as well have been pacing in a cage at the zoo in Woodley Park.

“You know he’s going to be crazy on the mound, staring at you,” said Cody Bellinger, the Dodgers’ star center fielder. “You’ve got to be ready for it.”