Erick Fedde tosses six scoreless as Nationals hand Dodgers first shutout loss of 2022…

Erick Fedde and the Nationals’ bullpen held the Dodgers off the board as the home team avoided getting swept by LA…

Erick Fedde worked around four hits and one walk, striking out six in six scoreless innings in the series finale with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Nationals Park on Wednesday afternoon, in what ended up one his better outings of the year.

Fedde, 29, tossed three scoreless innings to start, on 51 pitches, working around a two-out single in the first inning, a leadoff double in the second, and a one-out walk to his one-time teammate Trea Turner in the top of the third, then he stranded a leadoff single in the fourth.

Dodgers’ outfielder Hanser Alberto doubled to right, over Juan Soto’s head, to lead off the fifth, the third time in five innings the Dodgers put their leadoff man on, but Alberto made for third base on a ball hit to short and was tagged out, then Fedde got a ground ball to second from Trea Turner in the next at-bat, and the Nationals’ defense turned a quick 4-6-3 inning-ending double play. He threw just six pitches in the inning, extending his outing.

A nine-pitch, 1-2-3 top of the sixth left Fedde at 90 pitches overall on the day, in what was still a 0-0 game, but the Nationals put a run on the board in the bottom of the sixth, so he was lifted at that point after throwing six scoreless in what ended up a 1-0 win.

Erick Fedde’s Line: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks, 90 P, 58 S, 6/3 GO/FO.

“I really executed some pitches, especially the one to Trea to get the double play,” Fedde said after the game, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman.

“I made them use their aggression to my advantage. If anything, I executed my pitches in quality parts of the zone for quick outs.”

“He made some really good pitches in situations where he needed to,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez told reporters after his club salvaged a win in the series finale with the Dodgers.

“For me that was the key. He utilized all his pitches. He threw some backdoor cutters to those lefties and threw them really well. I mean, that was effective as well, and knew when to throw a fastball to get them off that cutter.

“Everything was working well for him today, and … he built his pitch count up early on and then he settled down and he gave us all the outs we needed and the innings we needed.”

Fedde threw 43% cutters in the outing, mixing in his sinker (34%) and curve (22%) and he generated 11 swinging strikes — six with his sinker, two with his cutter, and three with his curveball, and got 16 called strikes, seven each with his cutter and sinker and two with his curve.

“We talked a lot about him earlier, and about how much he’s maturing, and how much his routine has changed, and you see the results from that,” Martinez added.

“He’s been working with [Pitching Coach Jim] Hickey diligently in his bullpens, just working on pitches, the shape of his pitches, the changeup, his cutter, all that stuff, and he goes out there and he competes, and I think now he’s got a little bit of confidence behind him which is really nice.”

While it looked early like it might be a brief outing as his pitch count climbed, Fedde settled in gave the Nationals six strong, holding an impressive Dodgers’ offense off the board.

“He settled down. We talked to him a little bit about, ‘Hey, you’re getting yourself in those two-strike situations, finish. Try to finish early.’ And to his defense, those guys can foul some balls off, and they were tough earlier, so and he did, and he settled down and got some quick outs, like I said, six innings, 90 pitches, and we took the lead, and I thought that was awesome. I didn’t want to send him back out there, I felt like our bullpen could come in there with fresh arms and do the job.”

Carl Edwards, Jr. handled the seventh, Kyle Finnegan the eighth, and Tanner Rainey got the save in the ninth in the first shutout of the Dodgers this season.