The Los Angeles Dodgers were shut out by the Washington Nationals on Wednesday. Yes, you’re reading that correctly.
The Dodgers, with a lineup that includes three former MVPs at the top, suffered their first shutout of the season, in a 2-0 loss to Washington at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers were shutout by four National pitchers. Jake Irvin, who entered the day with a 4.24 ERA this season, threw six shutout innings, allowing just four hits while striking out six. Then, he was followed by Robert Garcia, Hunter Harvey and Kyle Finnegan, who combined to allow just one hit and one walk across three shutout innings.
This was the Dodgers’ most embarrassing loss of the season, and it caps off an overall disappointing week.
The Dodgers have gone 2-5 in their last seven games, and have now lost back-to-back series to the Nationals and division-rival San Diego Padres. Both series came at Dodger Stadium.
Fortunately, the Dodgers have an off-day on Thursday, and it’s much-needed. The team has dropped to 12-9 on the year after starting the season 7-2. And after scoring at least five runs in each of their first 10 games, they’ve now scored fewer than five runs in seven of their last 11 games.
The bottom of the lineup has been a serious issue, while Freddie Freeman is in a slump — especially for his standards — with just two hits in his last 20 at-bats. One bright spot was Landon Knack, who made his MLB debut on Wednesday and pitched very well, even after allowing two runs in the first inning.
Knack ended up going five innings, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out four.
After the game, he spoke to our Doug McKain about the outing:
“The second I walked out and picked up the ball and stood on the mound for a second and looked up, I was like, ‘Alright, we’re here,’” Knack said. “After that second inning, we felt really good. Knew that basically after that, just rip it and just go.”
The Dodgers open up a three-game series against the red-hot New York Mets on Friday at Dodger Stadium before they travel back to the East Coast to face Washington again, this time in the Nation’s Capital.
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports