For first time this season Dodgers drop fourth consecutive game, 8-3

Yes, those were your 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers on display Monday night, though possibly not the team most anticipated seeing.

Manager Don Mattingly stuck with his all right-handed lineup against a left-handed pitcher, or at least those still available to him, and the results were not pretty.

The Dodgers were pounded again, losing, 8-3, to the Nationals before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 45,722. And for the first time this season, they have now lost four consecutive games.

With Howie Kendrick joining Justin Turner on the disabled list, Mattingly’s all right-handed lineup against Gio Gonzalez looked like this:

Shortstop Jimmy Rollins, second baseman Jose Peraza (in his major league debut), right fielder Yasiel Puig, first baseman Scott Van Slyke, center fielder Enrique Hernandez, third baseman Alberto Callaspo, left fielder Alex Guerrero, catcher A.J. Ellis and left-hander Brett Anderson.

Gonzalez bravely took the mound and held them scoreless for eight innings.

Since the Dodgers played a night game in Pittsburgh on Sunday, by the time they flew across the country and landed at LAX, it was already 4 a.m. Sleep was at a premium, assuming they could sleep at all after that horrific 13-6 loss.

Since their bullpen had been used and abused Saturday and Sunday, they very much needed Anderson pitch deep into Monday’s game, so naturally it didn’t happen.

Anderson went five-plus innings. All seven batters he faced in the sixth inning reached base before his night was over. By the time the inning was over, Washington had scored five times. It might have seemed bloody, but it was minor league stuff compared with the eight runs the Dodgers gave up in the seventh inning Sunday.

Ian Desmond hit a two-run homer off Anderson (6-7) in the second inning to start the scoring for the Nationals. Anderson held them down for the next three innings before he could do nothing right in the sixth. Washington’s first five batters collected a hit. Then came a walk and another hit, and Anderson could be left dangling no longer, beat up bullpen or not.

Desmond, liking this home run thing, added a second one in the eighth inning off J.P. Howell. He has 14 home runs for the season.

The Dodgers managed seven hits, then went home and tried to find some solid sleep.

Their closest pursuers in the National League West are the Giants, who despite their own four-game losing streak, were idle Monday and managed to pick up a half-game in the standings. The Dodgers’ lead was cut to 2½ games with the loss.

Peraza, 21, went one for four with a triple and walk in his debut.

Carl Crawford helped the Dodgers avoid a ninth shutout this season with a pinch-hit, three-run homer in the bottom off the ninth off Doug Fister. It was the first pinch-hit homer of his career.

Gonzalez held the Dodgers scoreless in his eight innings on seven hits and a walk.