Stephen Strasburg improved to 9-0 as this final game of the regular season series against the Cardinals wasn’t a laugher until Jayson Werth blasted a grand slam. The Nats improved to 5-2 against the Cardinals this year, and they won’t face each other in the regular season again until next year.
Dusty Baker was flawless in every in-game decision today as he saved Jayson Werth for a spot like he got in the 7th with bases loaded and 1 out to bring in his bearded righty.
Stephen Strasburg did what Aces do. Baker said, “Stras was good until he ran out of gas.” He became the stopper ending that 2 game losing skid and labored through 6 full innings while only giving up 1 run in a true quality start. Strasburg exited the game with the Nats up 3-1. Felipe Rivero came in once again for a Houdini act with bases loaded and 1 out in the 7th inning. Rivero retired the very hot Matt Adams on a sacrifice fly and then got the Randal Grichuk on a can of corn flyball for the final out of the 7th inning with the Nats clinging onto that 3-2 lead.
Wilson Ramos was the offensive star of the game going 3-3 with the big 2 run single which was the Game Winning RBIs when the game was tied 1-1 and then got on base to be knocked in again and his finale to the game was a 2 run blast into the leftfield bleachers to make the score 10-2.
Jayson Werth’s grand slam as a pinch-hitter was his 4th pinch-hit home run of his career and was his 6th grand slam of his career.
Jayson Werth's sixth career grand slam & fourth career pinch-hit home run happened all in one at-bat.https://t.co/lqf1scEHod
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) May 29, 2016
The Werthquake bat flip #MBFA
Flip that bat (or toss it, whatever) pic.twitter.com/yMpyDJkhZZ
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 29, 2016
JAYSON WERTH WITH A GRAND SLAM! #Nats now lead 8-2. #IBackTheNats pic.twitter.com/iIu9xyD8hW
— Nationals on MASN (@masnNationals) May 29, 2016
Stephen Strasburg was asked about that new pitch he added to his repertoire this year, “Somedays I call it a slider and some days a cutter depending on how it moves.”
Strangely, the slider/cutter was not an effective pitch today for Strasburg as the Cardinals got 3 hits off of that pitch.
Today’s attendance was 38,898 at Nats Park which was a sell-out crowd and for those of you who got there, you were treated to an exciting game. Make Baseball Fun Again.