Nationals Offense Wakes Up and Blows Out Rangers 9-2

curlywWell hello 2012 Washington Nationals welcome to 2014 could you stay for a while? Tonight’s seemed like a flashback to the greatest year in this young franchises history as the Texas Rangers got the full extent of what the 2012 Nationals so good: Pitching and Homeruns. With none other than Stephen Strasburg taking the mound and pitching to the full potential that resulted in him being a number one overall pick saw the Nationals beat the visiting Texas Rangers 9-2.

Strasburg had only one high stress inning of the six he pitched that resulted in both of the runs scored by the Texas Rangers but Strasburg ERA will continue to improve as both runs were unearned as a result of an error by Stephen himself. Strasburg would settle down throughout the rest of the game as he pitched his eighth consecutive quality start in a row as well as recording nine strikeouts.

The offense received the jolt they needed as it came early on a three run homerun by Ian Desmond, which was his tenth of the season, in the fourth inning. Desmond’s three run homerun marked the first three run shot by a Nationals player since April 16, which belonged to Jayson Werth. The offense would then continue to score at least one run in the next four innings including two in both the sixth and seventh innings. Tyler Moore broke out of his slump while pinch hitting (0-11) this season as he knocked in two runs on a sixth inning double that put the game out of reach for the Rangers.

Denard Span would spark the Nationals top of the lineup and lead them to a win as he reached base three times as well as crossing the plate twice for the Nationals. The rest of the top of the order excelled as Anthony Rendon, in the two hole, knocks in two singles and Jayson Werth finished the day with three hits. The Nationals lineup finally looks like it may have turned it around as the team registered 15 hits for the highest total for the month of May.

The Nationals would get strong bullpen outings to close the game out from Drew Storen and Blake Treinen. Storen pitched yet another scoreless inning and lowered his already impressive ERA to 0.95 to once again join the two other Nationals relievers, Rafeal Soriano and Aaron Barrett, with ERAs under 1.00. Treinen would finish off the game with two scoreless innings and continues to pitch very well out the bullpen as his ERA in innings of relief sits at an impressive 1.04.

The Nationals win starts their return to the top of the closely contested NL East as they now sit at just 2.5 games behind the division leader Atlanta Braves. Hopefully the Nationals can continue this offense outpour for the rest of this series while the wait for slugger Ryan Zimmerman to return from the DL.

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Brian Hradsky

The owner of MSB, I created this website while in college and it has never died.

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