A game started by a pair of pitchers who each have three Cy Young Awards to their name did not begin as expected. Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw ultimately settled in, with the latter outlasting the former, but Scherzer out-pitching Kershaw.
The end result was the Washington Nationals improving to .500 with a 5-2 victory that also snapped the Los Angeles Dodgers’ four-game winning streak. The Nationals took their lead three pitches into the game.
Chris Taylor had a similarly aggressive approach, lining Scherzer’s first pitch of the game off the wall in right field for a triple. But whereas Kershaw allowed two runs in the opening frame, Scherzer worked out of a jam after the Dodgers put runners at the corners with nobody out.
It wound up setting a tone for the evening. Kershaw allowed a season-high nine hits, which amounted to four runs for the Nationals in his seven innings. Scherzer limited the Dodgers to just one run on four hits in six innings.
Following the loss, Cody Bellinger voiced his frustration with the team’s inability to come up with timely hits against the vaunted righty, via Rowan Kavner of Dodger Insider:
“You can sit on something all you want, but it’s still hard to hit,” Cody Bellinger said of going against Scherzer. “We had our opportunities to score. We didn’t capitalize.”
The Dodgers left nine men on base and finished 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The Nationals stranded seven but were 5-for-13 with men in scoring position.
Bellinger and Yasmani Grandal tied for the game high with four men left on base. Bellinger struck out three times and drew a walk in his four plate appearances. His first strikeout came in the bottom of the first with one out and runners on the corners.
Bellinger’s next time batting with men on didn’t come until the seventh inning, when Sammy Solis got him swinging with one out and runners on first and second base.
