The headline should have been much different, but a 6-1 lead in the 7th inning was down to 6-4 when Blake Treinen came in with 2 men on and no outs. Treinen induced a doubleplay and finished the inning with a strikeout to keep the game at 6-4. Bryce Harper added a 2-run home in the 9th inning to make the final score 8-4.
No games are laughers it seems anymore until you grab a double digit lead. Truthfully, the bullpen was excellent even though the boxscore doesn’t look like it. Stephen Strasburg departed the game with no outs and two runners on-base after the umpire and Strasburg disagreed on a strike call ruled a ball. Matt Albers got a groundball that found a hole to load the bases and then induced another groundball hit right to Ryan Zimmerman who wheeled and threw wide of 2nd base as the ball rolled into leftfield to score 2 runs on the error. Oliver Perez came in to face the next batter who blooped a single off a jammed pitch to make the score 6-4 with no outs when Dusty Baker turned to Blake Treinen to work his magic with the go-ahead run in the batter’s box and no outs. In the 8th inning, Enny Romero threw a scoreless inning, and Koda Glover finished off the 9th inning with the four-run lead in his back pocket.
Bryce Harper has now homered in every National League ballpark with his home run in PNC Park tonight. Wilmer Difo added a 2-run home run earlier in the game, and Ryan Zimmerman had a 2-run double. Trea Turner began the game with a double, and later scored a run and he added a single which was a good sign to see Trea with some good swings and results tonight. Jayson Werth had 3-hits in the game, and every Nat in the starting line-up had at least one hit. The Nationals had a total of 14 hits in the game.
On defense, Trea Turner made some spectacular plays at shortstop to rob at least two hits in the game. Video here.
Two other big moves today involved pitchers. Jacob Turner will make the start tomorrow, and Erick Fedde was moved to the bullpen today. Stay tuned for more info on the Fedde move.
