With tonight’s 14-6 Nationals’ victory, Dusty Baker moved into 16th place all-time on the manager’s win list, and he notched his 99th win as a Nationals’ manager and his career 1,770th win. Tanner Roark earned the win in the game, but it was Matt Albers who relieved him and pitched 2 scoreless innings and gave up no hits, no walks, and worked around a fielding error. In fact the Nats had 4 errors in the game; one by each infielder.
The Nationals accumulated 19 hits for this game and scored 14 runs. Here is the box score for your analysis:
As the home team, the Nationals accumulated all of this offense in just 8 innings of offense. The game was close for 7 innings, and the Nationals blew it open against the Cardinals’ bullpen in the 8th inning as they scored 7 runs.
Even with all of the errors, the Nationals had some great defense from Stephen Drew and Bryce Harper who both turned in spectacular doubleplays. Adam Eaton should have had another outfield assist, but Anthony Rendon dropped the throw from Eaton which should have resulted in an out.
“It was kind of an ugly game, but when you score it will cure most of the ills,” Dusty Baker said after the game. The ills were those four errors plus two additional plays not ruled as errors.
Pick your choice for the star of the game. Matt Albers entered the game in the 6th inning in a 6-5 game and held the Cardinals scoreless for his 2 innings of work and really cooled them off. Koda Glover also had a scoreless inning. The offensive stars were many; Stephen Drew, Bryce Harper, Adam Eaton, Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Lind, Jayson Werth, and Matt Wieters were all big in this game.
Of special note, all of the Washington Nationals runs scored without the benefit of a home run which had been a staple of the Nats offense this season until tonight. The Nats were 9-for-19 in RISP spots tonight plus 4 walks and 2 sacrifice flies.
Photo from the @Nationals Twitter
