Washington’s Nationals dropped two of three in Los Angeles when they visited Dodger Stadium back on April 20-22, taking the series opener 5-2 behind a strong start by Max Scherzer before dropping the next two games to the Dodgers.
“I do believe that we battled,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez told reporters, including MASN’s Mark Zuckerman, after the second straight loss in the series finale in LA.
“We competed. You’re looking at a Dodger team that’s really good. But we competed. We played all the way to the end there.”
“It was big,” Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts said after taking two of three.
“That’s a good ballclub over there and we saw some good pitching in three games and for us to win a series was big for us.”
The Nationals dropped two of three in San Francisco in the next stop on what ended up being a disappointing 4-5 road trip, and dropped two more at home to Arizona before a victory in the finale with the Diamondbacks in D.C. started a streak of six straight wins.
Going into this weekend’s series, the Nationals have won 14 of 20 since the series in Chavez Ravine.
Roberts’ Dodgers lost seven of nine after the series with the Nats, and have dropped 16 of their last 23 games going into this weekend’s rematch with Washington in Nationals Park.
“It’s a team-wide slump essentially,” Roberts told MLB.com this week. “I can’t recall anything like this, where we just haven’t had any semblance of consistency from any facet.”
Before the first series of the season, the Dodgers’ skipper said he thought it would motivate both teams to play against one another.
“I think that something like this sometimes, a series like this albeit still in April really gets the juices going and the intensity, so I think it’s going to be a playoff atmosphere all weekend.”
In spite of the Dodgers’ recent struggles, it should be another big matchup in the nation’s capital this time, and with Max Scherzer on the mound again tonight, weather permitting.
HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE OPENER WITH THE DODGERS:
#Nats vs #Dodgers 1 of 3: Turner SS, Harper RF, Rendon 3B, Adams 1B, Kendrick LF, Severino C, Taylor CF, Scherzer RHP, Difo 2B
— federalbaseball (@federalbaseball) May 18, 2018