Nationals Pull Off 2-1 Victory over Giants
Any team can win games 9-2, 6-0 and 8-4 like the Nationals have been this past week however it is the teams that win the 2-1 ball games against the best team in baseball that are the ones that succeed in October. Well the Washington Nationals are slowly becoming that team that can put up nine runs on offense the night before and then just the next night gets a 2-1 win.
The Washington Nationals won their third game in a row as well as winning nine of their last eleven not to mention the two losses were results of the other team just playing extremely well. Coming off of a night where the offense explodes for nine runs the Nationals score just what they need to get the job done like any good team would. The Nationals came into this series against the San Francisco Giants winners of seven of the last nine and tired for first place in the NL East while the Giants were on a five game winning streak and had the best record in baseball. Then after blowing out the Giants 9-2 the Nationals go on to get a gem from Doug Fister and beat San Francisco 2-1.
Doug Fister went a strong scoreless seven innings without allowing a run even though he gave up one walk, eight hits and only three strikeouts. Fister clearly didn’t have his best stuff but that didn’t stop him from recording his fifth win in a row as well as posting an ERA of 1.83 over his last six games and a 2.68 ERA for the season. Fister added to the Nationals rotation streak of consecutive quality starts with their eleventh in a row not to mention the starters ERA over the last eight games has been an unheard of 1.09.
The Nationals were able to get on the board against Madison Bumgarner first with a sac fly from the red hot Denard Span to plate the even hotter Ian Desmond. Then in the top of the fifth they were able to add to their lead as Jayson Werth ripped an RBI single to score Danny Espinosa who played yet another great defensive game at third base. The Nationals continued to devour left handed pitchers as they came into the game against the lefty Bumgarner batting .290 against lefties, which is the second highest mark in the National League.
The Nationals were able to continue their late inning dominance, as they came into the game with a record of 24-3 when leading after the seventh inning, most in part because of their strong back side of their bullpen. Tyler Clippard came into the game in the eighth inning and in doing so record his 370 career game which is most in Nationals bullpen history. Clippard finished off the Giants attempt to score on him with a 93 mph fastball that struck out former teammate Michael Morse which gave him his 20 consecutive scoreless appearances. After giving up a leadoff triple to Brandan Crawford, Rafael Soriano proceeds to get the next three batters out and even though he allowed one run he was able to record his 13 save on the season.
The Nationals did receive bad news in the top of ninth inning as Wilson Ramos came off the field with the trainer after he got his second double of the game due to what would later be reported as a hamstring injury. Even though Ramos told Matt Williams that the injury wasn’t bad he is known for missing extended periods of time due to his hamstring injuries as he was placed on the DL twice last year because of the injury.
The Nationals will look to secure their tenth win of their last twelve tomorrow along with secure a series win against the Giants in this four game series. The Nationals will call upon Tanner Roark to go against the Giants solid right hander Matt Cain.
