Nationals Win Series vs Orioles, Win Beltway Series
The Washington Nationals entered this week’s series against the Baltimore Orioles having already clinched a split in the Beltway Series, and needing just one more win to clinch it.
Tuesday night the Nationals welcomed two new pitchers to the team. The first was Jefry Rodriguez, the eighth starting pitcher used by the Nationals this season. Rodriguez pitched five innings, allowing five runs on four hits as the Orioles jumped out to an early 5-1 lead. The Nationals would rally for four runs in the fifth inning to tie the game at 5-5, and later score four more runs in the seventh to take a 9-6 lead. In the eight inning, the Nationals welcomed their newest acquisition Kelvin Herrera. Herrera made his Nationals debut to the tune of a 1-2-3 inning as Washington went on to win 9-7 to clinch the Beltway Series with their fourth win over the Orioles in what would total out to be six games.
Saturday the Nationals looked to win the series behind Gio Gonzalez, but Mark Trumbo rained on the parade with a two run home run in the second inning to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead. This would remain the score as the game was delayed over 2 hours due to rain in the fifth inning. Once play resumed, Baltimore manufactured one more run in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by Danny Valencia to make the score 3-0 in favor of the Orioles. This would remain the score as the Nationals loaded the bases in the ninth inning, yet failed to score, capping off a 3-0 loss to force a rubber game on Thursday.
Max Scherzer pitching with a series on the line seems like an almost foolproof idea. However this didn’t exactly go to the Nationals liking as Scherzer allowed two solo home runs-a recent trend across all Nationals pitchers, as the Orioles jumped out to an early 2-1 lead. The Nationals would tie the game on a solo home run by Anthony Rendon in the sixth inning before Juan Soto sealed the deal with a two run double in the eighth inning as the Nationals would go on to win 4-2, winning the Beltway Series by a final score of 5-1, and improving their interleague record to 9-6.
Nationals will conclude their homestand with a three game series against the Philadelphia Phillies this weekend.
