The National’s bats have been hot for their past two games, and last night was no exception. Our boys pulled out seven runs over the course of the game, and swept the Red’s 7-3. It was the 3rd series sweep for the Nats this season, and the second in RFK. The Nationals are now 48-60!!
We scored some great tickets off Craig’s List yesterday and headed to the game excited to sit behind home plate. The players all wore vintage white Senators caps, and between innings they showed a tribute to Walter “Big Train” Johnson in honor of the 100 year anniversary of his first game in Washington. It was very nicely done, and his career was just incredible.
The girls and I were also pleasantly surprised by the line up last night. Flores, who is usually our Sunday starter, was behind the plate. I am consistently impressed with our rookie catcher. I was just saying I wished Manny would give him a chance to play more than one day a week. He was great behind the plate last night, but had a bit of a rough night offensively, going 0-4, but got on base once after being hit by a pitch. Regardless, it’s only a matter of time before this young guy really breaks through, and I think all are glad we took a chance on this Rule V.
Flores was catching for Mike Bacsik last night. Bacsik had a fantastic night. He pitched seven innings and gave up just three runs on seven hits. All three of those runs were due to home runs shots in the 2nd inning. He gave up a solo homer to Adam Dunn and then a two run shot to the very next batter Alex Gonzalez. Bacsik shook off the mistakes and went on to retire 16 of the next 17 batters he faced. He threw just 81 pitches 51 of them strikes. To add to his 3rd consecutive quality start, Mike hit a double in 4th and scored a run.
The Nationals were hitting like crazy last night. Zimmerman hit an RBI double and a two run single. Zimmerman really broke out against the Reds, he went 6-12 this series and added 6 RBI’s to make his total 56 so far this season. He also had some great fielding plays to help the Nats hold the Reds. Dmitri Young had a key single last night; it brought in Zimmerman, and scored the tying run. The Nationals scored their last run of the night in the 7th with Church on base. D’Angelo Jimenez was in to pinch-hit and ripped a double to bring Church in. Jon Rauch pitched a scoreless 8th inning, and Rivera came in to close the 9th.
The Nationals offense is really heating up with Austin Kearns, Ryan Church, and Zimmerman all hitting well. The Nats have scored 5 runs or more in their past three games. They scored 20 runs against the Reds. Hopefully this momentum carries over tonight when we open a series against the Cardinals!
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