Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals won this game by a final score of 7-to-1 in a game that frustrated the Nationals for 5 1/2 innings as the Dodgers led 1-to-0. In the bottom of the 6th inning with men on 2nd and 1st — Ryan Zimmerman took a mistake pitch by reliever Ross Stripling over the wall for a 3-run home run. The Nationals added 4 more runs with 2 runs coming from an Adam Lind pinch-hit opposite field home run. Lind raised his RBI total to 50 which is incredible for a part-time player. Ryan Zimmerman’s 4 RBIs tonight raised his season’s total to 99.
The Nats starter, Stephen Strasburg, pitched great again tonight but was victimized by a ball that clanked off of the heal of Michael Taylor‘s glove and ruled a hit instead of an error which ended the 35 inning scoreless streak that Strasburg was accumulating. Strasburg lowered his ERA to 2.60 and he earned his 14th win on the season.
This win also evened the season series with the Dodgers at 3 games apiece. The entire season series was close on the final scoring except today and Friday’s game. The Nationals bullpen ran the table on the Dodgers this season going scoreless the entire season with a total of 20 2/3 innings of dominance.
The Nationals best scoring chance in the game came in the 5th inning with Strasburg on 2nd base and Trea Turner on 1st and Jayson Werth batting, JDub hit a liner down the leftfield line that appeared to pound the chalk. It was ruled by 3rd base ump Gary Cederstrom as a foul ball. Dusty Baker challenged the call which was upheld.
Every starter today reached base safely by a hit or walk except for Michael Taylor who went hitless along with Matt Wieters in this series. The offensive star was definitely Ryan Zimmerman who hit 2 home runs in a 3-for-4 night. Daniel Murphy had 2-hits and could have been 4-for-4 the way he hit the ball tonight.
The triumvirate of Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle finished the game off as “The Firm” did their job again. Because the score was larger than a 3-run lead when Madson and Doolittle were in the game they didn’t qualify for a “hold” or “save”. Kintzler however did qualify for a “hold”.
This win also moved the Nationals to 90 wins which was Baker’s 10th 90-plus win season making Dusty the 12th manager in Major League history to win 90 or more games on 10 or more occasions, per Elias Sports here are the other managers with 90+ win seasons: John McGraw (16), Joe McCarthy (15), Bobby Cox (15), Connie Mack (13), Joe Torre (12), Tony La Russa (12), Earl Weaver (11), Casey Stengel (11), Al Lopez (10), Walter Alston (10), and Sparky Anderson (10), are the only others to hit that mark and all of them are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Nationals have a day-off tomorrow will head to Atlanta for a 3-game series against the Braves.
