It took a few times, but Gio Gonzalez got his 100th win, and Daniel Murphy got his 500th RBI in his career, and the Nationals got their 75th win of the season.
While Jayson Werth homered again tonight and so did Daniel Murphy, Trea Turner was the sparkplug and havoc wreaker tonight. He personally caused 3 errors on the Rockies tonight and went 2-5 with 2 runs scored. Werth, Murphy and Harper each had 2 RBIs each as the offense really got it going.
Gio Gonzalez settled down after the 4th inning, and pitched a nice 6 inning game giving up just 2 runs for the game. The bullpen all did their job except when Shawn Kelley who came into the game to get the last out in the 8th inning, and Dusty Baker had him pitch the 9th inning and Shawn Kelley gave up 3 runs quickly on a home run, and was pulled for Mark Melancon to get the final out of the game. It was a shame to have to work 4 relievers in a blow-out game.
Marc Rzepczynski made his debut tonight and was pulled with 2 outs in the 8th inning.
“That’s somebody that’s super special,” said Bryce Harper of his teammate Trea Turner. “We know what we’ve got in him. I was thinking tonight, imagine if he was up in May, June, and July or before that. We might have already ran away with this thing. Having him at the top of the lineup, there’s nobody like him. It’s a lot of fun to be a part of, a lot of fun to watch.”
Tonight was the night that Frank Howard was inducted into the “Ring of Honor” and we will have a Thursday posting with many great stories from DonH, JCCinDC, and Senators69 who all attended a small Q&A with Frank Howard that was hosted by Phil Wood. To share a couple of questions and answers, DonH got to ask one of the first questions and to paraphrase “Frank, you hit 10 home runs in 20 at-bats to set a record” to which Frank answered, “If you can’t do that you shouldn’t play the game”. JCCinDC (John) asked one of the last questions in the Q&A and to paraphrase, “I saw you hit a HR at the end of your career with the Tigers versus the Yankees and you hit it with just one hand” to which Frank answered, “If you can’t do that you shouldn’t play the game”. That got some laughter and applause.
Here is the recap video on the Frank Howard unveiling and the game highlights which you can see on the link here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmKoVAGEM9M
