LOS ANGELES – The Nationals took a much-needed happy flight west Thursday night after finally snapping their 11-game losing streak with a walk-off, 11-inning win over the Rockies, courtesy James Wood. And they won’t board another plane for 10 more days, when they fly home at the end of a three-city, nine-game trip played entirely within Southern California. The trip ends in Anaheim, with a stop in San Diego prior to that. And it kicks off tonight at Dodger Stadium with the first of three against the defending World Series champs.
We’ll got a doozy of a pitching matchup for the series opener: MacKenzie Gore vs. Clayton Kershaw. Gore has already toppled the Dodgers this season, allowing two runs over six innings in a 6-4 win back in early April. The lefty has another opportunity tonight to state his All-Star case against an All-Star lineup. Knowing him, he’s plenty fired up for this one.
Kershaw makes only his seventh start of the season after opening the year on the injured list. He’s still quite good, with a 3.25 ERA and 1.301 WHIP at age 37. This is the first time the future Hall of Famer has faced the Nationals since 2021, so he’ll be going up against a very different lineup than he remembers.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 10:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 69 degrees, wind 5 mph out to center field
NATIONALS
Lineup TBA
LHP MacKenzie Gore
DODGERS
DH Shohei Ohtani
SS Mookie Betts
C Will Smith
RF Teoscar Hernández
CF Andy Pages
2B Tommy Edman
LF Michael Conforto
1B Kiké Hernández
3B Miguel Rojas
LHP Clayton Kershaw