Besides Trea Turner and Michael Taylor, the Nats bats were silent for 7 innings, and pinch-hitter Wilmer Difo led-off the 8th inning in a 2-to-1 deficit with a swinging bunt single over the pitcher’s mound. Trea Turner followed with a double, and that is where things got bizarre. The Braves walked 4 straight walks before Adam Lind delivered the big 2-RBI single to blow the game open.
The game started off 1-t0-0 on a lead-off home run to begin the game on the first pitch by Trea Turner, but then the Nats bats went silent. The Braves had two solo home runs off of Gio Gonzalez. It was a strong 7 inning pitching line for Gio as he exited the game behind 2-to-1 but earned the win because of the 8th inning rally. Gio only gave up 3 hits and 1 walk in the game and lowered his ERA to 2.68 which is the 4th best mark in the NL and the 5th best in the Majors.
It was a much needed bounceback performance from Gio and those 3 extra days of rest seemed to do the trick as he was aggressive and didn’t fall behind many batters. Gio stayed just under 15 pitches per inning to finish his outing at 104 over the 7 innings. Gonzalez struck out 8 batters in the game.
The Nationals win coupled with a Dodgers loss separates the two teams by just 3 1/2 games for best record in the NL and with a Cubs loss the Nationals Magic # against them is 4 games which worse case would assure home-field-advantage against them in an NLDS series.
With this win, the Nationals improved their season’s record to 92-and-59, and they are now just 8 games from 100 wins with 11 games remaining in the regular season.
