Dodgers’ offense turns tables on Nats starter Jake Irvin in second look – Daily News

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WASHINGTON — As George W. Bush once malapropped – fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice … won’t get fooled again.

Last week at Dodger Stadium, right-hander Jake Irvin held the Dodgers scoreless for six innings in a Washington Nationals victory. Getting a second look at Irvin on Wednesday night at Nationals Park, the Dodgers roughed him up on their way to collecting 20 hits (including eight doubles) in an 11-2 rout of the Nationals.

The Dodgers got offense from top (Mookie Betts had four hits and Shohei Ohtani had three doubles) to bottom (Andy Pages had three hits, including a home run) in their third consecutive win. But Gavin Lux might have needed his share more than anyone. He had two hits – his first multi-hit game since March 30 – and drove in two runs (doubling his season total of RBIs).

“Obviously we all want to perform and put up good numbers and help the team win. But realistically, you got to take a process-oriented approach when you miss a year and a half full of at-bats,” said Lux, who missed all of the 2023 season following a major knee injury during a spring game. “So it’s tough, but you’ve just got to keep grinding. You have no other option anyways. So just keep putting in the work in the cage and hopefully it will eventually translate. That’s all you can really control.”

The distance between Lux and his days as a hot prospect tearing through the Dodgers’ farm system has grown long, stretched out by a season lost to a major knee injury and a .148 start in his comeback this season.

But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gave the still-young infielder a vote of confidence before Wednesday’s game, saying it’s too soon to overreact to a slow start or cut Lux’s playing time. Anything less than 150 plate appearances is not “a fair gauge,” Roberts said.

“Definitely getting results helps,” Lux said of his own attempts to be patient. “Just trying to build equity in the season where you’re getting hits, and then you can kind of grow from there. I think that helps a lot. But yeah, you definitely want results. When you’re just grinding away in the cage all day and you don’t get it, it’s tough. But you just got to keep going with it.”

The Dodgers managed just four hits in those six scoreless innings against Irvin last week at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers’ first 10 hitters topped that hit total in their second look at Irvin, who took his lumps this time, giving up 12 hits before Nats manager Davey Martinez came to get him in the fifth inning.

“I think obviously, just the second look we understood what his ball does a little bit more,” Roberts said. “I think with the lefties it kind of cuts in on you a little bit. There’s a little cut to it, even with the righties the fastball glove side. It just wasn’t as crisp as it was a week ago. And that’s gonna happen.

“Last start he was making pitches, borderline pitches for strikes and getting ahead, and tonight I just think he didn’t command it as well as he did that first time around.”

The Dodgers scored in the first inning when Ohtani doubled and scored on Will Smith’s two-out RBI single. In the second inning, Lux lit the fire with his first single. Pages followed with a double and both scored on Betts’ single.

Smith doubled and scored on Max Muncy’s RBI single in the third and the Dodgers knocked Irvin out of the game with Lux’s two-out, two-run single in the fifth.

“That was a back-breaker for them,” Roberts said. “Irvin was on his way to getting out of that inning after there was stress. So Gavin with the hit in the four-hole was huge.”

Meanwhile, rookie starter Landon Knack did a much better job than Irvin of repeating his half of their matchup last week.

In that one, Knack gave up two first-inning runs in his major-league debut then retired 10 consecutive batters, finishing five innings with just that early damage.

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