Billed as a pitcher’s duel and a rarity in MLB history with a pair of three-time Cy Young Award winners going toe-to-toe, did not look the part in the early going, with the Washington Nationals getting to Clayton Kershaw and going on for a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Nationals’ first three batters each swung at the first pitch, resulting in Trea Turner’s game-opening double, Howie Kendrick’s fly out and Bryce Harper’s RBI single. Ryan Zimmerman stuck around until the fifth pitch of his at-bat, which ended on an RBI double.
Kershaw did settle in from there, retiring 11 in a row until Michael A. Taylor’s double to lead off the fifth. Max Scherzer flared a single into center field, putting runners at the corners, and Turner’s safety squeeze extended the Nationals’ lead to 3-0.
They added to it in the sixth inning, behind singles from Zimmerman, Matt Wieters and Taylor. Kershaw entered having only allowed three hits in a single inning once this season. The Nationals had three such innings.
Additionally, the nine hits Kershaw allowed were a season high, while his four strikeouts were a season low.
The early run support was all Max Scherzer needed, though he too faced trouble on multiple occasions. Chris Taylor followed in the Nationals’ batters footsteps and drove Scherzer’s first pitch for a leadoff triple in the bottom of the first inning.
Corey Seager was then hit by a pitch, but Scherzer navigated his way through Yasmani Grandal, Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson to strand both runners. Then in the second, Yasiel Puig was robbed of a home run by Taylor’s leaping catch at the wall in center field.
Taylor’s walk and Seager again being hit by a pitch put two on with one out in the third inning. But any thoughts of a rally came to an end when Grandal grounded into a double play. Bellinger’s leadoff walk in the fourth inning was stranded, and so was Taylor after hitting a two-out double in the fifth.
Puig cashed in Pederson’s two-out walk with an RBI single before Scherzer could get out of the sixth inning, which was his last of the night. Scherzer finished with nine strikeouts against three walks, and one run allowed on four his.
Grandal’s RBI single off Sammy Solis in the bottom of the seventh trimmed the Nationals’ lead to 4-2. Pedro Baez nibbled at the edges of the strike zone in the eighth, resulting in three walks, one of which brought a run in.
That ultimately made little difference, however, as Brandon Kintzler and Sean Doolittle combined for two scoreless innings to finish out the game. Los Angeles left nine on base and were just 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
The Nationals improved to .500 with their victory and snapped the Dodgers’ four-game winning streak.
