Tanner Roark went 7 strong innings of 1 run baseball as the Nats won in a drama filled 9th inning. The Nats worked Cueto hard, and he ran his pitch count up to 101 pitches in the 5th inning and was pulled after the 5th inning.
The Nats took a 4-1 lead into the 9th inning, and to the surprise of many, Dusty Baker once again went to Jonathan Papelbon for the 9th inning. Papelbon’s fastball was 88mph to 91 and Dusty allowed him to put two men on base as the tying runner stepped into the batter’s box. Baker inserted Oliver Perez to get the lefties and with an error on a groundball it was bases loaded with a 4-2 score. Perez struck out Denard Span to make it 2 outs, and Baker inserted Shawn Kelley to face Angel Pagan and he struck him out to end the game.
The offense was good against Cueto as the Nationals got 3 consecutive singles with 2 outs and RISP as Espinosa, Roark and Trea Turner all singled in runs. The 4th run came in the 6th inning on a Bryce Harper double to score Trea Turner.
Papelbon averaged 90.2 mph tonight to where his velo keeps dropping signaling arm fatigue. One day’s rest was not enough.
