A 3-0 record. Only 3 pitchers. A complete game in 2 hours and 15 minutes. A spot on top of the NL East? We surely can’t be talking about the Washington Nationals, can we? This is not the same team from last year. There is an excitement in the fan base, confidence among the players, power in the offense and a brand new stadium that has done wonders for teams in the past.

The game got off to a quiet start until the top of the 5th when Ryan Zimmerman belted a solo home run into right field, scoring the only run of the game. Zimmerman had quite a game defensively too. In the bottom of the 3rd, he snagged a short hopper by Rollins that bounced off of Redding’s back and made the out at first. In the 7th inning he made a diving stop on a hard hit ball to throw out Howard at second and turn the double play. Even though it’s still early in the season, Ryan Zimmerman isn’t the only one showing he deserves Gold Glove considerations. Austin Kearns, who was talked about for the honor last season, chased down an Utley line drive that easily could have dropped for a single. Austin isn’t going to be the type to make the diving, dramatic plays, but he positions himself so well in the field that he is able to make big plays looks easy.

Tim Redding was tonight’s winning pitcher and he was certainly impressive by retiring 13 batters between the end of the 2nd through the 6th inning. Last season, we got used to a good outing from the starters equating to 5 innings and maybe part of the 6th, but Tim looked strong through the 7th. He showed a calm confidence by not getting rattled when he was behind in the count. It was surprising, but exciting to see Manny Acta give Redding a vote of confidence by allowing him to start the 8th inning. He only threw 93 pitches and gave up only one hit through seven innings of work. Ayala came in to complete the 8th inning and Rauch pitched a great 9th inning to earn his first save of the year.

There is a strong possibility that John Lannan will join the rotation on Sunday. He looked good during the spring and handled the pressures of the majors extremely well last season. Watch the Nats go for the series sweep against the Phillies at 1:05pm on Wednesday!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.