Los Angeles Dodgers: First time in the Nation’s Capital in 2019

After a disappointing two-game sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers head to Washington D.C. for a three-game set.

For the first time in Freeway Series history, the Los Angeles Dodgers were swept by the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels won all four games against the Dodgers, which included two ugly losses for the team on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The team was given a travel off-day and is now set to begin a three-game series in Washington D.C. before a three-game series in Colorado. After that, the Dodgers have a 10-game homestand to start the month of August.

The Nationals present a tough challenge as they have been one of the hottest teams in baseball and have one of the scariest 1-2-3 pitching punches in the league, second only to the Dodgers themselves.

Luckily, the Dodgers are only facing one of the three arms but the trio of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin is a trio that no team wants to come up against in a playoff series.

On Friday, though, the Dodgers are facing Anibal Sanchez and are sending Hyun-Jin Ryu to the mound. Ryu is the deserving Cy Young winner at this point of the season but has not gotten the love he deserves as Scherzer already has the bigger following. Friday’s game would be a great time to prove how good he is in Scherzer’s ballpark.

The Dodgers have not lost a series at Nationals Park since 2014 and have a 9-3 record on the road against the Nationals since.

The team is obviously looking to continue that trend and as part of our Los Angeles Dodgers Beat the Streak series, this is who we think will get at least one base hit and provide some of the offensive spark.

Jason’s pick (Current streak: 0): Alex Verdugo

I got burned by Alex Verdugo in Wednesday’s game as I went with the young outfielder in a game that he ended up not starting. However, since he went 0-1 in his pinch-hit performance, my streak had to be reset.

Now after two days off in a row Verdugo will almost certainly be back in the lineup and is going to look to contribute in a big way. He has come back down to earth recently with a .206 batting average in the last 14 days but he has the matchup on Friday to kickstart a hot streak.

Verdugo has faced Sanchez five times in his career and has three hits off of the veteran right-hander. The Dodgers overall see Sanchez very well as the team has a collective .324 batting average against him.

It will be Verdugo who gets on base early and is the first run scored for the Los Angeles Dodgers, extending my streak in the process.