The game started off quiet in the top of the 1st inning, and then Max Scherzer took the mound in the bottom of the 1st inning and gave up 3 consecutive home runs. Max righted himself eventually but the Nats were behind 5-0 in the 2nd inning. The Nationals offense then climbed back into it but were 0-for-5 in the lead-off spot with Goodwin, and 0-for-4 in the clean-up with Zimmerman who left a team high 3-men on-base and 2 strikeouts on his boxscore.
Daniel Murphy was 3-for-4 in the game and Wilmer Difo was 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs. Matt Wieters really bounced back in this game and was 2-for-4 with 2 doubles. Bryce Harper was pitched around in key spots and took 2 walks and had 1 hit. Harper was robbed of a second hit in the game, but it was clear the strategy that the Diamondbacks were willing to walk Harper with Zimmerman hitting behind him and struggling. Zimmerman is at his lowest batting average of the entire season except for April 8th when he was batting .300. Zimmerman’s night ended at .319. On June 13th, Zimmerman was batting .372, and has watched his batting average drop 53 points.
The winning run in this game came off of Enny Romero in the 9th inning in a 5-5 tie. Romero takes the loss, but the bullpen was good in this one since Scherzer was pulled after the 5th inning.
“We got some clutch hits,” Dusty Baker said. “That was a great comeback by us. I don’t think I ever saw a game start with 3 homers. We just came up on the short end.”
Dusty Baker made some great decisions that worked well as he really thought outside the box in his in-game managing. Dusty Baker was also seen talking with Jayson Werth on the bench. There was a moment where Werth and Baker were talking when Ryan Madson was on the mound with a lefty coming up to bat. All the moves worked well even though as Dusty Baker said the team ended up on the short end.
