Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
The Nationals swept this 3-game series from the Marlins and reached the 7-games over .500 mark for the first time this season. Stephen Strasburg had a good start but labored with his pitch count in each inning and was pulled at the finish of his 5th inning and a pitch count of 103. The bullpen took over and bent a little bit but did not break. The game finished at a final score of 5-to-3 with Brandon Kintzler earning his second save of the season. Stephen Strasburg also helped himself with the bat as he knocked in the second run of the game to help his cause.
The Nationals offense got it done today with a Rendon home run, Strasburg RBI single, Bryce Harper‘s 16th home run, Trea Turner RBI double, and a Bryce Harper sacrifice fly. Every Nationals starter had a hit today except for Matt Adams who was double-switched out early and only got 3 at-bats. Adams missed a home run by a few feet in this game. Wilmer Difo had two hits in the game in which the Nationals tallied up 11-hits in the game.
“It’s a lot of fun when you’re winning ballgames,” Bryce Harper said with no mention of the Sky Chiefs.
Manager Dave Martinez was on top of his managerial moves today considering he was resting his closer Sean Doolittle who pitched the previous two days. He got a nice inning out of Justin Miller who threw a 1-2-3 sixth inning, and then Martinez pieced together the 7th and 8th innings with 3 relievers to get the ball to Brandon Kintzler to close out the game.
“They’ve been pitching really well,” Martinez said on his bullpen.
The Nationals also picked up a game on the Phillies who lost today and were in 1st place yesterday by a ½ game. With today’s win, the Nationals are now 1.0 game out of 1st place and a ½ game from 2nd place. In the last two dozen games, the Nationals are 18 wins against only 6 losses. With Strasburg’s 5.0 inning shutout, he pushes his ERA down to 3.13 and extends his scoreless streak to 23 straight innings against the Marlins.
