Joe Ross pitched a 7 inning, 2 hit gem, giving up only 1 run, and the Nats win 5-1. The game opened with a Jayson Werth home run in the 1st inning to open the scoring. The Phillies scored a run on a triple (Cesar Hernandez) against the shift making the score 1-1. Joe Ross got some great defense with Hernandez on 3rd base, Dusty had infield in and it paid off. A ball hit directly at Danny Espinosa cut down the runner going on contact as Wilson Ramos applied the tag. Aaron Nola dueled with Joe Ross in a great pitching battle.
Daniel Murphy crushed a HR on a mistake pitch off of Nola in the 6th inning for the 2-1 lead that was held until the top of the 9th when Danny Espinosa smashed a 2 run HR and the next batter was Stephen Drew and he got an inside-the-park home run for the final tally.
Felipe Rivero in a 2-1 game in the bottom of the 8th got a well earned Hold, and Jonathan Papelbon still came in for the 9th even though it wasn’t a save situation.
The Nats improve to 32-21 and are now 11 games over .500 which is their high water mark on the season which they last saw on May 4th, and the Nats are now streaking with 3 wins in a row. Joe Ross dropped his ERA to 2.37 which is best on the Nats staff, and the 10th best in the entire Major Leagues for qualified starting pitchers. The Nats hit their 8th pinch-hit HR tonight with Stephen Drew’s I-T-P-HR, and that ties a team record. Daniel Murphy’s 47 hits in a month set a Nationals record.
#WERTHQUAKE? ☑
Murph HR? ☑
Espi HR? ☑
Drew roundtripper? ☑#CurlyW? ☑
Lot of check marks? ☑https://t.co/RAb9IhQWSa pic.twitter.com/tDOyEtPw22— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 1, 2016
