Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendon were the big bats for the Nats to bail out Gio Gonzalez who left the game in the 6th with 2 men on and no outs in a 7-4 game. Dusty Baker went to Matt Belisle who was ready in the bullpen at the start of the inning, and Belisle got the doubleplay ball for a 6-4-3 tailor-made doubleplay for what Jayson Werth called the biggest play of the game.
Jayson Werth blasted a 3-run HR in the 2nd inning to put the Nats ahead 4-1. Gio Gonzalez unfortunately gave back the 3 run lead in the 3rd inning and ran his pitch count up. Gio settled down in the 4th and 5th, and in the bottom of the 5th inning the Nats got a lead-off double by Trea Turner followed by a Jayson Werth walk. Daniel Murphy hit a ball to the warning track that Almonte turned his back to and the ball hit the back of Almonte’s glove for a double which scored Turner. With runner’s on 3rd and 2nd base, Anthony Rendon ripped a ball down the 3rd base line for another double plating the final 2 runs of the game.
The Nats bullpen was nails today sans Oliver Perez who could not get his one lefty batter out. Credit to Matt Belisle (H,3), Blake Treinen (H, 13), Shawn Kelley (H,8), and Mark Melancon (S, 32) for a job well done.
A feel good moment was the first hit in the career of Brian Goodwin. With Goodwin’s hit, every Nats starting position player had a hit today.
In the stats department, when Gio Gonzalez is the pitcher of record he is now 70-0 when he receives 4 or more runs in support.
Nats win 7-4 and increase their lead back to 7.5 games in the NL East as the Marlins lost today. There are now only 49 games remaining in the regular season.
Today was Sammy Solis’ birthday as well as Wilson Ramos’ 29th birthday, and here is the Buffalo’s birthday cake:
Here is the recap video from the game that you can view on this link here.
