WASHINGTON — Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts’ MRI scan Saturday night revealed a strain of his right oblique. That sealed the Dodgers’ decision.

The team put Betts on the injured list and recalled Hyeseong Kim from Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday morning before an 8-6 win over the Washington Nationals to complete a three-game sweep.

“Hearing oblique, it kind of gives you a little something in your stomach,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But talking to Mookie, I felt a little more reassured today.”

Betts had popped into Roberts’ office minutes earlier and reported feeling better than expected. Betts first felt the discomfort rounding the bases to score on Freddie Freeman’s first-inning double Saturday, according to Roberts, but the team’s working theory is that he strained the muscle on a check swing as he worked a walk in his only plate appearance of the game.

“As far as putting a timeline, I’m really hesitant right now, because [obliques] are tricky,” Roberts said.

Asked if it could be a four-to-six-week recovery, Roberts said he’d “take the under.”

Kim also was in the clubhouse at Nationals Park on Sunday morning. While Betts is sidelined, Kim is poised to share time at shortstop with Miguel Rojas, who was batting second Sunday and went one for five.

Kim made his season debut as a defensive replacement at second base in the eighth inning.

“Playing the good defense that he’s been known to do,” Roberts said of what he expects from Kim. “And just take good at-bats. Take the walks when they’re there, control the strike zone. And not expect to carry us, but just be the player he is, bring energy. And it’s good to have him back. Obviously, not at the cost of Mookie. But he’s always additive when he’s around.”

Kim was a surprising omission from the opening day roster. Despite his offensive struggles with Korea in the World Baseball Classic, he hit .407 in 27 at-bats with the Dodgers this spring.

“Kim, when he starts to chase back-foot sliders, that sort of thing, you know he’s feeling something that’s not right, he’s not trusting himself,” Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates recently told The Los Angeles Times. “I think that’s where it kind of went awry in the WBC, a little bit. But he honed it back in when he got back with us. Once he got done with the jet lag, and the whole thing, he basically did everything we asked him to do.”

The Dodgers felt there were growth opportunities for both Kim in Triple A, with regular at-bats to reinforce his spring adjustments and playing time at multiple positions, and Alex Freeland in the majors, where he has faced a higher caliber of pitching and served as the left-handed half of the platoon at second base.

Roberts plans to keep Freeland, who’s struggling with a .641 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, at second base, though he also can play shortstop.

Roberts had yet to figure out a new normal for the top of the batting order without Betts. The lineup Sunday — which was scheduled to be a day game following a late-afternoon Saturday matchup and before the Dodgers head to Toronto for a World Series rematch — included backups in right field, third base and behind the plate.

Right fielder Kyle Tucker usually bats behind leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani. Roberts moved up Rojas to set him up for an extra at-bat against Nationals left-handed starter Foster Griffin. Left fielder Teoscar Hernández took Betts’ usual No. 3 spot in the order and responded with his first home run.

“I haven’t thought through that,” Roberts said of the top of the order. “I might have some time before today’s game starts to do that.”

In fact, he knew he’d have plenty of time. There was already a downpour outside. The game began at 3:44 local time after a delay of 2 hours 9 minutes.

Offense picks up Roki Sasaki

For Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki, the ground ball could not have bounced to a worse spot.

The unraveling of his second start began with a stroke of bad luck.

Sasaki was one out away from a scoreless fourth inning. And the slider he threw to Nationals No. 8 hitter Keibert Ruiz had its desired effect: soft contact. But the grounder hit first base and kicked up and over Freddie Freeman for an RBI single.

Then, in a 2-and-2 count to José Tena, Sasaki threw a fastball off the plate, but Tena reached it for a line-drive single. Then Sasaki grooved a splitter to James Wood, who hit it over the center-field fence for a three-run home run.

Sasaki also had given up a two-run shot to Luis García Jr. in the third inning, bringing his total to six runs surrendered.

Sasaki retired the side in order in the fifth to finish his outing, bringing his pitch count to 90. He gave up five hits and three walks and struck out five.

Until the eighth inning, the Dodgers had scored only via the long ball. Ohtani’s solo blast in the third inning was his second home run of the series and season. Catcher Dalton Rushing notched his first, a two-run shot in the sixth.

Then the Dodgers rallied for four runs in the eighth to retake the lead, scoring on a two-run single from Santiago Espinal, a ground ball to first base from pinch-hitting Tucker and a sacrifice fly from Ohtani.

Hernández added an insurance run in the ninth with his home run. The comeback victory gave them 31 runs in the three-game sweep, more than they scored in their first six games.

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