How many games feel like a kick in the guts when you win a game and a series against one of the better teams in baseball? This game felt like that as the Nationals won this game and took the series from the Diamondbacks, but the Nationals had some casualties in the game to two of their best pitchers. Stephen Strasburg was removed after the 2nd inning with what appeared to be a forearm issue, and Enny Romero was removed in the 7th inning with an issue that appeared to be his back.
The Nationals took the season series from the Diamondbacks 4 games to 2, and moved back to 21 games above .500 while lengthening their lead in the NL East to 12.0 games ahead of the Braves. The Nationals went 7-2 on this road trip, and have a Monday day-off which they will certainly need after a late night plane trip back to Washington, D.C..
The Nationals added Andrew Stevenson to the roster as an extra outfielder, and he entered the game as a pinch-hitter and then remained in the game in leftfield. Stevenson got 2 at-bats and hit a grounder and was out on a force-out, and in his 2nd at-bat he worked the count to 3-2 and fouled off several pitches to get it to a 10 pitch at-bat before striking out. He looked very comfortable in the box as you would expect from a player who was playing baseball on national TV at 11-years-old in the Little League World Series.Â
The game started off with a big bang off the bat of Brian Goodwin as he hit a lead-off home run, and later in the game Wilmer Difo hit a towering opposite field home run. The Nationals got 4 runs in the first inning against All-Star Robbie Ray. In fact all Nats starting position players contributed to the offense. Adrian Sanchez got his first career RBI.
Joe Blanton got credited with the win in this one based on the official scorers discretion since the starter did not go the required 5-innings.
