When you look at the box score from Monday night’s rather dismal 8-3 Dodgers loss to the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium, you won’t see very many bright spots in the game – but there were a couple.

Having lost everyday second baseman Howie Kendrick to a strained left hamstring the night before, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi made a rather bold move prior to the game when they called up recently acquired utility infielder/outfielder Jose Peraza to fill in at second base for Kendrick, who will be lost for at least two weeks but more realistically four to six.

Peraza, who turned 21-years-old on April 27 and acquired from the Atlanta Braves at the July 31 trade deadline along with pitchers Alex Wood and Jim Johnson, became the youngest Dodger to make his MLB debut since Clayton Kershaw did so on May 25, 2008 as a 20-year-old.

Without a lot of fanfare or hype and hoopla, the Barinas, Venezuela native promptly went 1 for 4 with a fly out to deep right field, a leg triple for his first MLB hit, a ground out to second, drew a walk and struck out to end the game.

“It was interesting, I hadn’t really had a chance to even see him on film,” said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly about Peraza. “I heard that [he had] good speed, good bat-to-ball skills, doesn’t always strike out that much, doesn’t walk that much. He struck out, he walked and he showed his speed, so we got to see the whole package tonight.”

Jose Peraza became the first Dodger to triple in his MLB debut since Doug Rau did so on September 2, 1972. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The young infielder was also involved in several defensive plays at second base including a sharp 6-4-3 double play in the first inning with veteran shortstop Jimmy Rollins.

“I’m a big fan of [Rollins]. I actually grew up playing shortstop so that’s where that came from,” Peralta said through an interpreter after the game. “I was a big fan and I actually watched video of him as well to kind of learn.”

But learning to work the position with a new teammate wasn’t without its issues. In the disastrous sixth inning when the Nationals collected six consecutive hits and put a five spot up on the scoreboard, Peraza missed a golden opportunity to turn a second double play on a chopper just to the right of the bag. Instead of taking an extra two steps to turn what should have been a 4-3 double play, the young second baseman underhanded the ball to Rollins for the force out. The extra half second it took Rollins to transfer the ball and throw allowed Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez to reach first on the fielders choice, which allowed an additional run to score.

“Obviously I wanted to get that [double play] there but I’ve got to keep working on that,” said Peraza of the play.

Down 8-0 and down to their final out in the bottom of the ninth with runners on first and second, Dodgers pinch-hitter Carl Crawford launched a Doug Fister 87-MPH fastball eight rows deep into the Right Field Pavilion for a three-run home run to avoid the shutout. It was Crawford’s second home run of the season and his first career pinch-hit home run.

The Dodgers only runs on Monday night came on Carl Crawford’s three-run pinch-hit home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Monday night’s disappointing loss came less than 24 hours after an even more disappointing loss on Sunday night in Pittsburgh against the NL Wild Card-leading Pirates and it once again showed the Dodgers’ weakness – their pitching – this time from the normally reliable Brett Anderson, who was tagged with the loss after allowing seven earned runs on 10 hits with three walks and one strikeout. But as he often does, the extremely good-natured and brutally honest left-hander posted his thoughts of the game on Twitter.

The Dodgers will attempt to put a stop to their four-game losing streak – their longest since losing four straight in September of 2013 – when they hand the ball to 2015 NL Cy Young award hopeful Zack Greinke later tonight. In fact, when asked how to keep their four-game “blip” from becoming “an even longer blip,” Mattingly summed it up best:

“You give the ball to Zack Greinke and take your chances.”