Shohei Ohtani of Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after hitting a single during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Los Angeles.
12:07 JST, Apr 18, 2024
LOS ANGELES (AP) — CJ Abrams homered in the first at bat of the game and the Washington Nationals defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0 on Wednesday to win the series.
Nationals starter Jake Irvin (1-1) pitched six scoreless innings to earn his first win of the season, giving up just four hits. Irvin was efficient and dominant all afternoon.
“He was unbelievable,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “He’s actually been excellent. He keeps getting better and better. Confidence is growing so he is giving us the innings we need. After the sixth inning we had a big talk. I felt like he let the air out the last inning and we talked for a bit. We had a new bullpen, so we decided to go with the bullpen. I can’t say enough about what he’s done so far.”
Landon Knack (0-1) made his Major League debut for the Dodgers.
Abrams hit his second pitch of the game to right centerfield for his third career home run. Joey Menses hit a sacrifice fly to center to score a run, also giving a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Those were the only runs of the game.
Knack settled down after that first inning and retired the next 12 batters.
“I started and I was a little nervous,” Knack said. “I was excited and then the end of the inning started to calm down and after we got through the first inning we started doing things normally.”
He allowed those two earned runs on four hits, struck out four and walked one.
After a five-hit game the day before, Mookie Betts went 0-for-4. Shohei Ohtani went 3-for-4 with three hits.
“Shohei was fantastic. I thought he did a great job,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He saw some good arms today. I thought he did an excellent job controlling the offensive zone. When he got a pitch in the strike zone, he hit it hard. If he can continue to do that, no matter how good he is, I think he can get even better.”
Kyle Finnegan earned his seventh save of the season by retiring the side in the ninth.
But Irvin’s fastball stole the show on Wednesday.
“That was the goal today, to compete for the plate,” Irvin said. “I can’t create a swing and miss, it just happens. Do my job, compete at the plate and let everyone else do their job.”
