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LOS ANGELES – Guess who has played some pretty good baseball here the last two nights? Yeah, that would be your Washington Nationals, who narrowly lost Friday night’s series opener and then bounced back by blasting five homers Saturday night to convincingly beat the Dodgers. And just like that, they have an opportunity today to both win this series and win the season series against the defending World Series champs. Not too shabby for a team that just lost 11 in a row, huh?
The challenge today is a unique one, because the Nats will be facing Shohei Ohtani as both a hitter and as a pitcher. They’ve done a nice job against him as a hitter so far (1-for-7, two walks, three strikeouts). It’ll be up to Michael Soroka and the bullpen to try to keep that trend going this afternoon.
How will the Nationals’ lineup fare against Ohtani the pitcher? He’s only faced the franchise once before (April 2023 in Anaheim) and he dominated (seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball, despite five walks and a hit batter). Given the fact this is only his second start back from elbow surgery – and he couldn’t go on a minor league rehab assignment because he’s still on the active roster as a hitter – the Japanese phenom is expected to throw only two innings, maybe three if he’s really cruising. So really this game may hinge more on the Nats’ ability to do some damage against the Dodgers’ bullpen than their opener.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 78 degrees, wind 4 mph out to center field
NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Keibert Ruiz
CF Jacob Young
RHP Michael Soroka
DODGERS
RHP Shohei Ohtani
SS Mookie Betts
1B Freddie Freeman
3B Max Muncy
RF Andy Pages
2B Tommy Edman
CF Hyeseong Kim
LF Michael Conforto
C Dalton Rushing
