WASHINGTON -- The East Coast road trip doesn't get any easier Saturday for the San Diego Padres, who fell to 9-18 away from home with a 5-1 loss on Friday night to the Washington Nationals.

After facing Max Scherzer on Friday, the Padres get to contend in the late Saturday afternoon shadows with right-hander Stephen Strasburg (5-1, 3.28 ERA), who will make his seventh career start against his hometown Padres.

Strasburg, a former San Diego State standout and the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2009, is 5-1 with a 3.50 ERA in six career outings against the Padres.

"As effective as any one-two (starters). Most people who have a one don't have a two," Padres manager Andy Green said Friday of Scherzer and Strasburg.

Scherzer went 8 2/3 innings and allowed just three hits with 13 strikeouts in the win Friday.

"On any given day, they are dominant starters. Every team wants a challenge," Green said. "We get two of the best pitchers in the game in the next two days."

Strasburg has limited experience against current San Diego hitters. Infielder Erick Aybar is 2-for-9 (.222) against Strasburg.

Washington bench coach Chris Speier is filling in for manager Dusty Baker, who is in northern California for the Saturday high school graduation of his son, Darren. Baker will miss all three games of the series against San Diego.

"Dusty is doing what he should do," said Speier, who said players and managers sacrifice a lot of family events during a long season.

The former big league shortstop said he thinks the Nationals are doing more defensive shifts this year than last season, when he joined Baker in Washington.

"I want my pitchers to be confident with it," Speier said of the shifts. "All of our pitchers have the ability not to have it."

Speier has been around the game nearly his whole life and doesn't see shifts going away.

"It does work more times than not," he said.

San Diego's starter on Saturday will be left-hander Clayton Richard (3-5, 4.31 ERA), who tossed his fourth career complete game in his last start on Sunday against Arizona. He allowed one run and five hits with six strikeouts.

Richard is 1-3 in 10 career games, with six starts, against Washington. He has a 3.56 ERA in 43 innings and has given up 16 walks with 27 strikeouts.

Richard will face a Washington team that leads the National League in hitting at .274 and has a league-high 74 homers, including homers Friday by Trea Turner, Michael A. Taylor and Bryce Harper.

"It is definitely a challenge," Richard said Friday. "It seems like this year we have run into a lot of good offenses. You really have to focus pitch-by-pitch."

The Nationals have three of the top hitters in the league in first baseman Ryan Zimmerman (.362), right fielder Harper (.340) and second baseman Daniel Murphy (.316). They have combined for 37 homers, and third baseman Anthony Rendon has nine.

Harper hit his eighth two-strike homer on Friday. He entered the day tied with Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Eric Thames of the Milwaukee Brewers for the major league lead in that category with seven, according to the Nationals.

"You have to try and get each of them out," Richard said. "You have to sell out to the guy who is in the box."

How does a team prepare for an opponent it does not face often?

"There are not as many adjustments," said Richard, who said that is not the case against divisional foes. "We have to trust the scouting report and go off that."

Zimmerman and Murphy got the night off Friday so both should be in the lineup Saturday.

Speier has been impressed with the leadership of Murphy and his defense since he came over from the New York Mets after the 2015 season.

"He is always willing to speak to anybody about hitting," Speier said of Murphy.