Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Los Angeles, CA–
If anyone remembers the days when Stephen Strasburg used to come out on the mound at Nationals Park and mow down the opposing batters, well here is Round 2 of that. For those who criticized the Nationals in that Playoff run that year for shutting down Strasburg, well guess what, this dude is back and so may be the Nationals.
When you are able to rebound after a 6-0 loss the night before and then you throw in your best two pitchers on the roster, good things can happen.
So Kershaw may not have had his best stuff tonight early, but he did fix himself through the middle innings and left it up the rest of the Nats pitching staff and of course Sean Doolittle to make it a bit interesting for anyone watching. Most of these watching on hand tonight were Dodgers fans in the blue and white, but we did see a few Strasburg jerseys throughout the crowd tonight.
Scherzer struck out the side in the eighth, but Washington’s shaky bullpen still ran into trouble. Daniel Hudson labored through the ninth, loading the bases with two outs before striking out Corey Seager for the save. The tense final inning also included a twisting, falling grab by third baseman Anthony Rendon on Cody Bellinger’s pop fly in shallow left field, as well as a gutsy intentional walk by manager Dave Martinez that brought the winning run to bat.
The Nationals now return home to try and advance if they are able score two wins at home, they would take on the winner of the Cardinals and Braves.
