Amid a roster scramble, the Los Angeles Dodgers will add another pitcher to the collection Wednesday afternoon as right-hander Landon Knack is set to make his major league debut against the visiting Washington Nationals.
Knack already has been with the club this week in Los Angeles, and manager Dave Roberts confirmed the roster move late Tuesday.
The 26-year-old Knack pitched in two games with the major league club during spring training and gave up a pair of earned runs over four innings. In three starts at Triple-A Oklahoma City this season, he was 0-1 with a 4.02 ERA and had 16 strikeouts with four walks in 15 2/3 innings.
The Dodgers already had been giving starters like Yoshinobu Yamamoto at least one extra day of rest between starts. With fellow right-hander Bobby Miller going on the injured list over the weekend because of right shoulder inflammation, the club has been forced to go deeper into the depth chart.
Los Angeles went with another bullpen game Tuesday, giving Kyle Hurt his first major league start. Hurt was recalled before Tuesday’s game, while fellow right-hander Eduardo Salazar also was added to the roster.
Another addition Tuesday was outfielder Andy Pages, who singled on the first pitch he saw in the majors as the Dodgers went on to a 6-2 victory over the Nationals.
“Just from the outside looking in, he works so hard and he is a really good guy, a really good kid,” said the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts, who recorded his third-career five-hit game Tuesday. “… He’s really cool and calm. You couldn’t really tell it was his debut. I think he did an amazing job.”
Pages was needed with Jason Heyward out because of a back injury and Chris Taylor struggling to start the season while on a 0-for-30 run after going 0-for-2 on Tuesday.
“I’ll try to get (Pages) in as much as I can to see what we have,” Roberts said.
The series is tied at one victory apiece, with the clincher set to go down in a rare midweek afternoon game at Los Angeles.
The Nationals will send right-hander Jake Irvin (0-1, 4.24 ERA) to the mound on Wednesday for his fourth start of the season.
In 24 starts of his rookie season last year, Irvin had a pair of outings against the Dodgers and went 0-1 with a 4.09 ERA. He gave up four runs on eight hits over five innings in a road game against Los Angeles on May 30.
Irvin had one of the best outings of his young career on Friday in Oakland, giving up one run on one hit over six innings with two walks and five strikeouts. And yet he ended up with a no-decision in Washington’s 2-1 defeat.
“My job is to go out there and challenge those guys, keep us in the game,” said Irvin, whose only hit allowed was a home run by Lawrence Butler. “That’s what I was doing: Giving us a chance to win.”
Jesse Winker, who signed a free-agent deal with the Nationals this past offseason, is in the midst of a career revival with a home run among his two hits in Tuesday’s loss. Winker raised his batting average to .373 and his OPS to 1.108. His on-base percentage is an MLB-best .500.
–Field Level Media
