Recap: Nationals Win 2-0 Over Reds On Opening Day
Following in suit of many games last year, Max Scherzer was electrifying through six innings, then the Law Firm of Kintzler, Madson, and Doolittle shut the door in the seventh, eighth, and ninth. On the offensive side, the Nats scored in the first and the ninth innings.
Scherzer was absolutely electrifying throughout his start. Scherzer struck out ten batters, including seven in a row early in the game. Scherzer allowed five hits and one walk. Three of the Reds’ hits came courtesy of second baseman Scooter Gennett, who was 3-3 with a double off of Scherzer and 4-4 total on the day.
A key to the game that Scherzer executed on was minimizing the impact of Joey Votto. Votto brags a lifetime .428 OBP, but was 0-3 against Scherzer today.
Scherzer pitched well throughout, but his pitch count was at 100 after the sixth inning, so the logical move was to turn it over to the Nats pen, who handled the game with ease. Kintzler, Madson, and Doolittle all had relatively low-stress innings.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Nats were largely kept in check by Reds starter Homer Bailey. Bailey allowed only one run in six innings of work, but ended up taking the loss. He allowed his only run in the first inning. Adam Eaton singled to shallow right field, followed by an Anthony Rendon flyout, then by a Bryce Harper single which moved Eaton to third. Ryan Zimmerman then grounded into what appeared to be an inning ending double play, but a hard (yet clean) slide from Harper broke it up, forcing a bad throw from Gennett that Joey Votto could not pick, allowing Eaton to score.
The Nationals were held then held scoreless until they added one insurance run in the ninth. The run should be credited almost entirely to Michael A Taylor; he bunted for a base hit, stole second, got to third on an aggressive read on a Matt Wieters ground ball, and then was driven in by a (not all that deep) Brian Goodwin fly ball.
Two highlights from the Nationals offense were Adam Eaton and Bryce Harper. Eaton showed himself to be the fully-recovered version of himself we were hoping to see, and more than capable of taking the leadoff role like last year. Eaton was 1-3 with a walk and a run scored. Even one of Eaton’s strikeouts was a high quality at-bat, because it was a very long AB which prolonged what would have been a very short inning’s rest for Max Scherzer.
Harper continued his streak of hitting well on Opening Day (he has hit five Opening Day HRs). Even though he did not go deep, Harper was 2-3 with a walk.
Even players who appeared to have average or sub-average days at the plate hit more or less fine. Rendon was 1-4, but hit the ball deep in the OF on two of his three outs. Zimmerman was 0-4, but torched the ball into right field his second time up, showing he can still hit the ball to all fields.
The Nationals will face the Reds again tomorrow at 2:10 PM, with Stephen Strasburg on the mound, looking for win number two.
