The Washington Nationals were shutout through 7 1/3 innings of this game until Daniel Murphy homered to close the gap to 2-1 on the scorecard. Jimmy Nelson came out for the 8th inning and gave up a lead-off walk to Matt Wieters that opened up the floodgates for the Nationals in that 8th inning scoring 7 runs to go up 8-2. Ryan Zimmerman with 2 outs in the 8th inning with the score tied 2-2 hit an opposite field double to score 2 runs and the Nats added on 4 more runs after that, all with 2 outs.
Much credit to Gio Gonzalez for a great outing. His ledger says he gave up 2-runs, but one of those runs scored on a wild pitch strikeout. Say no more, turn the page, but Gio pitched excellent besides the one run given up on a home run. Gio had 8 strikeouts against 1 walk and only 5 hits given up in 7.0 innings.
Ryan Madson with a good 8th inning to work around a lead-off single and Sean Doolittle took the 9th inning with a 6 run lead and gave up 3 quick runs and was in a spot where the tying run was in the batter’s box. Doolittle buckled down in his 28-pitch effort. Tonight Doolittle threw 26 fastballs and 2 splitters. One of the splitters was the only pitch Orlando Arcia saw and he hit it for a single.
Bryce Harper was ejected in the 8th inning after a strikeout. It was unfortunate but it seemed to energize his teammates according to FP Santangelo.
Bryce Harper said he got too fired up before the game from listening to Chance the Rapper and Logic. "I think I need to change my playlist."
— Kyle Melnick (@kyle_melnick) July 27, 2017
