LOS ANGELES — Dodgers right-hander Landon Knack recovered from a brutal two-run, three-hit, 28-pitch first inning in his big league debut to blank the Washington Nationals on one hit over the next four innings and keep the Dodgers within striking distance on Wednesday.

But the Dodgers never struck.

An offense that ranks second in the major leagues in runs and homers and fourth in on-base-plus-slugging percentage mustered only five hits off Nationals starter Jake Irvin and three relievers in a 2-0 loss before a matinee crowd of 44,428 in Chavez Ravine.

The top four batters in the Dodgers' lineup, who had produced a big league best .342 average and .973 OPS entering Wednesday, had only three hits — all singles by Shohei Ohtani — and one walk and struck out twice in 16 plate appearances. The Dodgers were hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Irvin mixed his 96-mph fastball, 82-mph curve, 94-mph sinker and 92-mph cut-fastball to limit the Dodgers to four hits, striking out six and walking one to improve to 1-1 with a 3.13 ERA and help Washington win the series.

The Dodgers, who were shut out for the first time since a 9-0 loss to the Reds on July 30, have lost five of seven games. After hitting .294 as a team and averaging 6.3 runs while winning seven of their first nine games of the season, the Dodgers have hit .244 and averaged 4.1 runs while losing seven of their last 12.

"I think today we have to give Irvin a lot of credit," manager Dave Roberts said. "It's one of those things where we haven't seen him before. He has a lively fastball, and it played up in the zone. He was riding it in on the right-handers. He threw some breaking balls. There were a lot of strikeouts and soft contact. Clearly, our guys weren't seeing the ball well."

The Nationals backed Irvin with three superb plays, second baseman Luis Garcia Jr. diving to his left to stop Freddie Freeman's third-inning grounder and to his right to snag Gavin Lux's fifth-inning grounder and first baseman Joey Meneses gloving Freeman's 100-mph shot at the bag and throwing to second to complete a double play in the sixth.

Garcia made another Gold Glove-caliber play behind reliever Hunter Harvey to save a run in the eighth, diving his left to smother another Freeman grounder and throwing to first for the third out, stranding Ohtani at second base. Closer Kyle Finnegan retired the side in order in the ninth for his seventh save.

"They defended well," Roberts said of the Nationals. "Garcia at second base took a lot of hits away from us."

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