Dodgers shut out by Nationals, drop another series at home in Landon Knack's first start

Knack, a 2020 third-round pick out of East Tennessee State, said he experienced a "welcome-to-the-big leagues" moment as soon as he jogged to the mound before the first inning and looked up at the fourth deck in Dodger Stadium.

"The second I walked out and picked up the ball, I kind of stood on the mound, looked up and it was like, 'All right, we're here,' " Knack, 26, said. "I definitely had a little bit of nerves going."

Knack's second welcome-to-the-big leagues moment came on his second pitch of his big league career, a center-but 93-mph fastball that leadoff man CJ Abrams cranked 392 feet into the right-center-field seats for a home run and a 1-0 Nationals lead.

Jesse Winker singled to left, took third on Garcia's one-out single to right and scored on Meneses' sacrifice fly to center for a 2-0 lead. Knack walked Joey Gallo to put two on with two outs but escaped further damage by striking out Nick Senzel with an 85-mph changeup, a whiff that seemed to calm Knack's nerves.

Knack retired the side in order in the second, third and fourth innings. Eddie Rosario led off the fifth with a single to center, but Knack induced a double-play grounder from Riley Adams and got Abrams to ground out to first to close out his five-inning, four-hit, two-run, four-strikeout, one-walk, 75-pitch effort.

"Toward the back end of [the first] inning I started to calm down, and after we got through the first, I got back to doing things normal," Knack said. "It was more of a mindset. It was kind of slowing things down within myself, making sure to breathe, and after that, everything came out a lot smoother."

Knack was the third Dodgers player to make his major league debut in this series, joining reliever Ricky Vanasco, who threw two perfect innings of relief on Monday night, and outfielder Andy Pages, who singled in his first plate appearance on Tuesday night.

The Dodgers weathered a slew of rotation injuries to win 100 games last season, leaning heavily on youngsters such as Bobby Miller, Emmet Sheehan and Michael Grove — who threw three hitless innings with four strikeouts on Wednesday — and top pitching prospect Gavin Stone earned a spot in this year's opening-day rotation.

The fact they've won 12 of their first 21 games despite cycling through 21 pitchers already — they used all of 19 pitchers during their 1988 World Series-winning season — is a testament to the depth of an organization that has maintained a productive farm system while carrying one of baseball's top five payrolls for 12 straight years.

"I think that whole narrative of how we spend overall on payroll gets lost when you're talking about how we can backfill with homegrown players," manager Dave Roberts said. "Shout out to Billy Gasparino [vice president of baseball operations] and our player development and scouting guys. … I think we identify a lot of good talent, a lot of good makeup players, and we develop them."