The Nationals batters in the first through fourth spots in the line-up were on-base 14 times in this game, and they got Stephen Strasburg 4-runs in support of a nice victory against the Marlins. Strasburg went 6-innings of 2-run baseball with 11 strikeouts as Stras was one K away from averaging 2 strikeouts per inning. Strasburg’s change-up, curveball, fastball combination kept the Marlins batters off-balance all night.
There was a scary moment in the game as Trea Turner was beaned in the head on a slider, and Trea stayed in the game and promptly stole 2nd base for his 40th steal of the season which leads the Majors. On top of that Trea had a productive 2-for-4 night at the plate including a safety-squeeze single for the second run of the game. Adam Eaton had 2 hits and an RBI and Anthony Rendon had 2-RBIs. Bryce Harper was walked 5 times in his 5 times at the plate. He is the first batter this year in the National League with 5 walks in a game.
“I told him he might be the first batter with more walks than hits,” manager Dave Martinez said. “I told him to be patient.”
The Nationals roughed up Marlins’ top prospect Sandy Alcantara for 3-runs over 4 innings which is his worst outing of his young career. His 1.42 ERA ballooned to 2.35 as you would expect for a pitcher with 23 innings on the season.
Along with Strasburg’s strong outing, Davey Martinez went with his best bullpen arms to ensure this win and they went 3.0 innings of one-hit baseball with no walks. What a difference a day makes.
