The Nationals won their 9th game today, their 3rd win on a Sunday. They also earned their second series win of the season. Lefty pitcher John Lannan continued to impress by pitching seven scoreless innings and gave up just four hits. Lately, Lannan has pitched more like the ace than a 23 year old who was called up from the minors to work as the fifth starter.
Wily Mo Pena, who has struggled since coming off of the DL, looks like he is getting back into the groove of things. He hit an RBI single in the second inning that drove in Nick Johnson. Catcher Wil Nieves came up to bat next and drove in Pena to put the Nats ahead 2-0. Those were all the runs that we would need to keep the Cubs tame all afternoon. Our pitching staff had a great day with Ayala coming in to pitch a hitless 8th inning, and Rauch did the same to earn his fourth save of the year.
The Nationals have now won four of their last six, which is certainly a move in the right direction. Throughout these last six games, we’ve seen some great offensive performances and we’ve some real disasters, like last night. It’s obvious they are frustrated by these offensive ups and downs. Kearns, who is usually so even keeled, slammed his bat and helmet to the ground after a bad at bat last night. Unfortunately, his frustrations continued today as he didn’t get a hit and left four men stranded on base. Hopefully these guys can get some consistency in their at-bats and stop hacking away at every pitch.
Wil Nieves was called on again to catch for Lannan. The two worked together during Tuesday’s win against the Braves. Lannan has now thrown 19 scoreless innings. They clearly work well together and Lannan’s roughest outing of the year occurred with Lo Duca behind the plate. With Wil doing so well behind the plate and working with one of our strongest pitchers, it’s going to be hard to see him go back to Columbus when Lo Duca comes back.
The boys are off tomorrow, but will take on the Braves Tuesday night at Nationals Park.
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