Kershaw outduels Strasburg as Dodgers avoid sweep

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershawgave up one run, three hits and three walks over seven innings in a 2-1 victory Wednesday over Washington. (Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer)LOS ANGELES >> Dodgers pitcher Pedro Baez was inches away from becoming a plot device in a depressing narrative Wednesday afternoon — a symbol of questionable bullpen usage, the Dodgers’ inferiority to the Washington Nationals, and every frustration in between.

And then, before you could say “third place,” he was not.

With a runner on third base in the eighth inning, Baez stuck his glove down to snag a hot comebacker off Bryce Harper’s bat. The runner, Trea Turner, broke for home plate and was tagged out in a rundown.

Thus, a…