The palpable excitement for Monday’s series opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals was dashed roughly one hour prior to first pitch with news Stephen Strasburg was scratched due to an upper back strain.
Clayton Kershaw did start, and ended a scoreless first inning with back-to-back strikeouts of Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper. Yusmeiro petit retired Chase Utley and Corey Seager before giving up a solo home run to Justin Turner.
Turner at that point improved to 3-for-4 with three home runs in his career against Petit. Kershaw protected the 1-0 lead by retiring the Nationals in order in the second inning.
Petit followed suit in the bottom half of the second, collecting a pair of strikeouts in the process. After Anthony Rendon and Danny Espinosa struck out, Petit ended Kershaw’s early no-hit bid with a chopper that carried up the middle.
Nothing came of it, as Michael Taylor followed with a groundout. Yasmani Grandal nearly hit a home run down the left field line, with the foul call upheld after review. He then struck out looking on the next pitch.
Kershaw grounded out and Utley struck out to end a 1-2-3 inning for Petit. Werth led off the fourth with a base hit to right field and never advanced. Harper struck out a second time in as many at-bats, and Kershaw then retired Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman to end a scoreless inning.
Seager led off the bottom of the fourth with a ground-rule double to left field. He then came around to score on Turner’s base hit to right, which included a relatively weak throw to home plate by Harper.
Joc Pederson added to the Dodgers’ lead in the fifth inning with a towering solo home run to right field. Taylor jumped on the first pitch he saw and roped a one-out double down the left field line in the sixth.
He was stranded as Werth struck out on a pitch in the dirt and Harper whiffed on a 95 mph fastball. Harper at that point fell to 0-for-3 on the night with three strikeouts. His results were reminiscent of those against Kershaw last July, which prompted the eventual 2015 National League MVP to call the Dodgers’ ace the best pitcher in baseball.
Seager doubled in the bottom of the sixth and Gonzalez drew a walk, but both runners were stranded. The Nationals finally managed to scratch in the seventh inning behind multiple base hits, with Rendon’s RBI single cutting the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1.
A wild pitch to pinch-hitter Chris Heisey allowed the two runners on base to advance. Heisey failed to do any damage against his former club, flying to left to end the inning. Howie Kendrick hit a hustle double with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
Pinch-hitter Kiké Hernandez was intentionally walked with two outs so Nationals reliever Oliver Perez could face Utley. The decision backfired as Utley lined an RBI single into center field, extending the Dodgers’ lead to 4-1.
Harper managed his first hit of the night with two outs in the eighth on a cue ball of an infield single to third base. Joe Blanton worked around it to complete a scoreless inning of work.
Kenley Jansen closed the game out and passed Eric Gagne for first place on the Dodgers’ all-time saves leaders list with his 162nd career save. The victory extended the Dodgers’ winning streak to four games, and cut the San Francisco Giants’ lead in the NL West to 5.5 games.
