The Nationals broke their four game losing streak last night against the Houston Astros. Tim Redding pitched 7 shutout innings against his former club and lead the Nats to a 7-0 victory. It was only the sixth time this season the Nats have held on to a shutout. It was an exciting game to watch. I hope this win gives the boys the motivation they need to not only survive the brutal 15 games in 15 days, but to win a few more of them. Also with the win last night, we are tied again with the Marlins for 4th place. Lets win a few more and put Florida in last place for good.

Game Highlights:

Wily Mo Pena - hit a monster shot homer in the 2nd inning. Reuniting with his best friend in baseball here in Washington seems to have lit the spark under Wily Mo. Too bad it hasn’t seemed to work for the other half, Felipe Lopez (he made Yahoo Fantasy Sports, “Not Hot” list last week).

D’Meat - launched a 3-run shot over the right field wall in the 3rd inning with two outs on the board. His shot triggered a big inning where the Nats scored 5 runs.

Austin Kearns - moved back to right field and was thankful because he doesn’t like the hill or the flag pole in center field of Minute Maid Park. He looked comfortable on the field. He had an awesome throw to home which helped keep the Astro’s from scoring. Kristen commented that she wished he would use his powerful arm like that every game, I have to agree. Austin even surprised me with a couple of nice hits offensively. I really want to cheer for this guy, so I hope he continues hitting with some consistency.

Jesus Colome - is back and in action. He pitched the 8th and 9th last night. Its nice to have him back. I really appreciated not having to see Jon Rauch pitch last night, who knows what would have happened to our 7 run lead! Bob and Don called Colome a “very deliberate” pitcher last night. After watching him, and then watching Manny’s reaction in the dugout, I think the guy just takes a long time to set up. It looked like Manny was trying to speed things along and keep the game tempo up. Anyway Colome wrapped up the game well.

Ryan Wagner - made an appearance last night in the dugout. He is out for the season due to rotator cuff surgery, but lives about a 120 miles away and made the journey to visit and cheer on his teammates.

I hope the Nats keep hitting and we have a successful stand in Houston. The good news is that the hurricane looks like it will miss Houston. Phew…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 8:02 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.