Jefry Rodriguez Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
The Nationals dominated in this game and won 7-1 while giving up no earned runs behind Jeremy Hellickson‘s start except Helly was pulled with pain in his wrist after 3-innings. He was relieved by Jefry Rodriguez who went 4 2/3 innings of shutout no-hit baseball, and the game was finished up by Matt Grace who also did not allow a run or any hits. The Nats pitching was so good that they held the Braves to just 2-hits in the game, and JRod showed his bosses that he deserves a chance next year in Spring Training.
The Nats offense worked a team record 14-walks to go with 7-hits that were timely as 5 of those hits knocked in 6-runs on the way to a laugher.
“We talk about that all the time: ‘Take our walks’,” manager Dave Martinez said. “We’re pretty good when we take our walks. It seems like when we do that, we’re able to put the ball in play really hard, and they did that. We scored some runs.”
The Nats phenom, Juan Soto, dominated today on the bases with a 1-2 game, 3 walks, 3 stolen bases, 2 runs scored and 1 RBI. Would it be appropriate to rename the stadium from SunTrust Park to JuanTrust Park? Just take away the “S” in Sun and add a “J” and an “a”.
Soto set a record for the youngest player to ever steal 3-bases in a game surpassing the “Man of Steal” Rickey Henderson who stole 3 bases in a game at 20 years 241 days on August 23, 1979. You have to wonder if Soto wanted to use this national broadcast audience to show he has some speed to go with the rest of his game. In addition to the steal, he flashed some more speed when he scored the final run of the game from first base on a double from Mark Reynolds. To the BBWAA writers who have made up their minds for Ronald Acuna, it is as if Soto sent a message that he can do it all on a baseball field.
