Game 18 lineups: Nats at Dodgers

LOS ANGELES – It’s another beautiful day in the City of Angels, where this afternoon the Nationals wrap up their long West Coast trip with one more game against the Dodgers. It’s the rubber game of the series, and the rubber game of the entire trip. A win today and they’d head home having gone 5-4 in California. Not bad at all.

The Nats did well against a premier starting pitcher in Tyler Glasnow on Monday night. They struggled against four relievers on Tuesday night. Now they’ll see what they can do against an unknown entity: Landon Knack, who makes his major league debut for the Dodgers. The 2020 second-round pick is the organization’s top pitching prospect, and he went 5-1 with a 2.51 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 100 1/3 innings last season between Double-A and Triple-A.

Jake Irvin looks to pick up right where he left off in Oakland last weekend, when he held the A’s to one hit over six innings. It’s a more daunting assignment today, but the tall right-hander has consistently exceeded expectations for nearly a year now, so maybe he’s got another big-time outing in him today and can send his team home with a winning road trip.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 3:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly sunny, 75 degrees, wind 3 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF Jesse Winker
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García Jr.
1B Joey Meneses
DH Joey Gallo
3B Nick Senzel
CF Eddie Rosario
C Riley Adams

RHP Jake Irvin

DODGERS
SS Mookie Betts
DH Shohei Ohtani
1B Freddie Freeman
C Will Smith
3B Max Muncy
LF Teoscar Hernández
CF James Outman
RF Andy Pages
2B Gavin Lux

RHP Landon Knack