Nats find out the hard way how tough it is to beat Kershaw

LOS ANGELES - Against Clayton Kershaw, you can't expect to score runs. You can only hope to give yourself as many opportunities to score runs as possible.

So Dusty Baker couldn't find fault with the approach his Nationals lineup had last night against the Dodgers ace. He just wished his guys had found some way to make the most of one of the opportunities they had, which might well have altered the course of what became a 4-1 loss at Dodger Stadium.

"All you can get are opportunities," Baker said. "Opportunities are the name of the game. If you don't have opportunities, you don't have a chance. But Kershaw, he knows how to pitch himself out of trouble. He's not in trouble very often, which is indicative of this game. He's not impossible to hit, but he's the best."

The Nationals hardly had any opportunities through the game's first five innings, managing a total of two singles off Kershaw (one of them from pitcher Yusmeiro Petit). But they did make the left-hander work to get his outs, and so his pitch count stood at 76 when he took the mound for the sixth.

"He's one of the best in baseball," right fielder Bryce Harper said. "He's got everything working for him. Get his pitch count up as best you can, and try to get him out of the game early."

On a sweltering, 96-degree night inside Chavez Ravine, Kershaw did appear to start running out of gas later in the game. He gave up a one-out double to Michael A. Taylor in the top of the sixth but battled back to strike out Jayson Werth and Harper in succession.

It was Harper's third strikeout in as many at-bats in this game, and it left him 1-for-15 with 10 strikeouts (and one home run) in his career against Kershaw.

"Come on, man. Everybody's got difficulty with Kershaw, especially left-handers," Baker said when asked about Harper's struggles. "I mean, this is one of the premier pitchers in the game. And Bryce is 23 years old. There's some guys out there a whole lot older than Bryce who have trouble against Kershaw. Kershaw, he's a nasty man. He doesn't have a 1.58 ERA for nothing. This guy doesn't give up much. And they like playing behind him, and I don't blame them."

The Nationals' last crack at Kershaw came in the seventh, and they very nearly got to him at last. Three singles by Daniel Murphy, Wilson Ramos and Anthony Rendon plated their first run of the night, and then a wild pitch put runners on second and third with one out. Trailing 3-0 at the time, the Nats had a shot to tie the game with one more base hit.

But Danny Espinosa's line drive to shallow left field was caught by Howie Kendrick (a career infielder) on a sliding play. And pinch-hitter Chris Heisey, after swinging through a high 2-1 fastball, sent a lazy fly ball to left field to end the inning and end Kershaw's night at 106 pitches. In the process, Kershaw improved to 8-0 with an 0.88 ERA since 2012 against the Nationals.

They had their opportunity. But as so many others have found out, opportunities don't necessarily translate to runs against arguably the best pitcher in the game today.

"Even if he's behind you, he can throw any pitch in any count," Harper said. "So I think he just has a lot of faith in what he does and how he goes about it. How he works and when they have him out there, it's something special for the Dodgers organization. So you just try to go out there and try to do everything you can possible to get guys on base and have good at-bats and take some good swings. We tried to do the best to our ability tonight, and they got us."