Dodgers hope to have Puig back for finale with Nats

Published February 05, 2015

(SportsNetwork.com) - Former No. 1 overall draft pick Stephen Strasburg could face a returning Yasiel Puig on Wednesday afternoon when the Washington Nationals host the Los Angeles Dodgers in the finale of a three-game series at Nationals Park.

Puig has been inactive since crashing into an outfield wall on Sunday and, though he was cleared to play Tuesday, he was kept on the bench by manager Don Mattingly to make sure he had gotten past the headaches he'd suffered since the collision.

Puig was 0-for-3 against Strasburg the last time the teams met in July 2013, a game the Dodgers ultimately won, 3-2, thanks to a Hanley Ramirez home run. In three career meetings with Los Angeles, Strasburg has no decisons to go with a 1.42 earned run average and 19 strikeouts in 19 innings.

Washington is 5-2 in Strasburg's seven starts in 2014, including a 5-3 win at Philadelphia on Friday.

The Dodgers go with righty Dan Haren, who's unbeaten this season and will face the team he was with last year.

Haren has allowed an opposition batting average of .270 and compiled a 5.26 ERA at Nationals Park, but is unbeaten on the road this year while winning three decisions and posting a 2.95 ERA.

On Tuesday, Clayton Kershaw made a successful return to the mound, firing seven shutout innings to help the Dodgers pull away for an 8-3 victory.

Sidelined since late March by a muscle strain in his upper back, Kershaw (2-0) scattered nine hits and fanned nine without a walk while displaying little rust from a layoff of more than six weeks.

The Dodgers provided the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner with plenty of support, with Ramirez going 3-for-5 with a homer and two RBI and Drew Butera belting a three-run shot in the rout. Dee Gordon added two hits and a pair of runs scored, while Andre Ethier finished 2-for-5 with an RBI.

Washington's Blake Treinen (0-1) allowed three runs in five-plus innings in his first major league start, though none were earned due to an error the rookie committed in the sixth.

Jayson Werth went 4-for-5 with an RBI for the Nationals. Anthony Rendon collected three hits in the loss.

Los Angeles has won six of the last seven games between the teams.

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