After a successful, tension-filled run through a pair of opponents from their own division, the Los Angeles Dodgers will move out of what they considered a “gauntlet” of the schedule when they welcome the Washington Nationals on Friday night.
The Dodgers went 7-3 against the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants, who are their top competition in a chase for their 12th National League West title in the past 13 seasons.
Los Angeles fell 5-3 to San Diego on Thursday, when benches cleared without incident after the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by a pitch for the third time in seven games between the teams. Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages were hit two times each for the Dodgers.
“I thought we played good baseball, and I think that some of our guys didn’t really perform well, and we still found a way to win more than we lost,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who was ejected twice in the series against the Padres.
“For me, it’s kind of thinking now about the Nationals, a team that’s been scuffling but that’s going to try to make right by playing us.”
Clayton Kershaw is set to take the mound for Los Angeles on Friday in the opener of a three-game series.
In his sixth start of the season on Saturday, Kershaw (2-0, 3.25 ERA) delivered his best outing in his return from offseason knee and toe procedures. The veteran left-hander fired seven scoreless innings against the Giants and had five strikeouts in an 11-5 victory.
Kershaw is 12 strikeouts away from becoming the 20th major league pitcher and fourth left-hander with 3,000 in his career.
In 19 career appearances (18 starts) against the Nationals, Kershaw is 13-3 with a 2.27 ERA. He had a win and a save in a 2016 NL Division Series victory over Washington but had a loss and a blown save in a 2019 NLDS defeat.
The Nationals will counter with right-hander MacKenzie Gore (3-6, 2.89), who has a 1.45 ERA over his last five starts (31 innings) but is just 1-2. He took the loss Sunday against the Miami Marlins despite giving up two runs over six innings. Washington fell 3-1.
Gore is 1-1 with a 3.32 ERA in four career starts against the Dodgers.
Washington arrives following a 4-3 home victory Thursday over the Colorado Rockies. James Wood hit two home runs, including a game-ending, two-run shot in the 11th inning.
Wood’s 19th and 20th home runs of the season were the difference in ending the Nationals’ 11-game losing streak. Washington is just 3-14 in June.
“It was just a sigh of relief, really,” Wood said. “I mean, I feel like we’ve been playing hard — just things haven’t gone our way. So it felt good for things to switch up a little bit.”
The Dodgers are well-versed in what Wood is all about. In a three-game series between the teams at Washington in April, Wood hit three home runs, including a two-homer game April 8. Wood was 4-for-10 in the series with seven RBIs and four runs.
“I’m glad everybody got to see his first (game-winning homer), but I’m hoping to see a lot more of those,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said.
The Nationals won two of three against the Dodgers earlier this season, but Los Angeles has not lost a season series between the teams since 2014.