WASHINGTON NATIONALS
LA DODGERS.gif" alt="" border="0">at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
A Scherzer-Kershaw duel should be the highlight of the weekend in baseball. Friday, 10:10 p.m. ET Line: Los Angeles -136, O/U: 6 Max Scherzer (3-1) vs. Clayton Kershaw (1-2)Saturday, 9:10 p.m. ET Stephen Strasburg (1-0) vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-0) Sunday, 8:00 p.m. ET Jeremy Hellickson (2-1) vs. Alex Wood (0-2) An 8-9 start is not what Dodgers fans had in mind when looking forward to the 2018 season, but it's still a massive improvement over the 4-9 record Los Angeles held before its recent four-game winning streak, three games of which came in a three-game sweep of the Padres in San Diego that wrapped up on Wednesday night with a 13-4 win. The Dodgers are back home on Thursday, where they'll open a three-game weekend set against the Nationals, another team that, at 9-10, has underachieved in early play. After taking the first two games of a series against the Mets, the Nationals lost 11-5 in Queens on Wednesday. Friday night's pitching matchup is arguably the best pitching matchup that all of baseball could offer, as Clayton Kershaw (1.73 ERA) takes the mound at home against Washington's Max Scherzer (1.33 ERA). Run support for Kershaw was near nonexistent in his first three starts this year, but finally arrived when he gave up only two hits in seven innings in a 7-2 win against Arizona on Sunday. Scherzer is the reigning NL Player of the Week: On Saturday he gave up one hit in seven innings against the Rockies, and five days earlier he pitched a complete-game two-hitter against the Braves.
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