Nationals 11, Dodgers 2

The Nationals out hit and out pitch the Dodgers to complete their three game sweep and continue the Dodgers' seven game losing streak.

John Lannan got the win, he's 8-12. Clayton Kershaw took the loss, he's 2-5.

Clayton Kershaw had his shortest outing of the season. He went 2 and 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on five hits and three walks, while striking out two. He's had two consecutive pretty bad starts, it's possible he's starting to tire. The bullpen didn't help much. Ramon Troncoso gave up three runs in three innings. Cory Wade gave up a run in his one inning of work, his first game since coming of the DL. Joe Beimel gave up two runs in his inning of work.

The Dodgers continued to not hit. They only left 10 runners on base today, but that's because they got nine runners on base. Andre Ethier went 1-3 with a walk and a run scored. Manny Ramírez went 1-4 with a homerun, two RBIs, and a run scored. Other than that, there were a few assorted hits and walks, nothing much of note.

With Arizona not playing today, the Dodgers loss kicked them down another half-game. They now sit at 3.5 games out of first in the NL West race coming into this very big weekend series in Arizona. The first game of that series starts tomorrow at 6:40 L.A. time.

Also: With the loss, the Dodgers fall to four games under .500 (65-69)... Cristian Guzmán, of the Washington Nationals, went 4-5, and hit for a cycle.

Opinion: Wow. A sweep by the Nationals. Do you want to know who the Nationals have swept this year? They swept Atlanta at home in a two game series in April. They swept the Seattle Mariners (who are as bad as they are) in June. And they swept the only slightly better Cincinnati Reds at home earlier in August. The Dodgers now join that list of shame. This is really bad... And the truly amazing thing about all of this? We are 3.5 games out of first place. I mean, if for some crazy reason we suddenly turn it around and sweep the Diamondbacks this weekend, we are a 1/2 game out of first place. A 1/2 game! Not that we are guaranteed to sweep (or even win one game for that matter), but just by comparison, if we were in the NL Central, we'd be 18.5 games out of first place. I mean, I honestly don't know what to do. It's hard to remain optimistic when we are playing so badly, but it's hard to call it a season when we are only 3.5 games out of first place with a month to go.

Dodgers 3, Nationals 2

The Dodgers got good pitching and just enough hitting to pull out a victory in the first game of this three game weekend series.

Chad Billingsley got the win, he's 10-9. John Lannan took the loss, he's 6-10. Jonathan Broxton picked up his 3rd save.

Billingsley gave up just two runs over 7 and 2/3 innings on five hits and three walks, while striking out four. He made just 106 pitches over that span. Broxton pitched 1 and 1/3 innings and retired all four batters he faced, one on a strikeout.

The Dodger offense collected just six hits, but got them when they counted. Nomar Garciaparra had a big two RBI single in the 6th inning to give the lead to the Dodgers. James Loney followed with an RBI groundout to make the score 3-1. The Nationals would tack on another in the 8th, but the three runs would prove to be enough.

With the win today, the Dodgers remain one game back of the Arizona Diamondbacks who also won today. They'll try for another win tomorrow at 7:10 L.A. time.

Also: Matt Kemp singled in the 6th inning to extend his hitting streak to 12 games... Chad Billingsley, with the win today, brought his season total to 10 wins, he is the first Dodger pitcher this year to have double digit wins... With today's win, the Dodgers reached the 50 win mark, they are still however, two games under .500 (50-52).