After taking the first game in the series against the Brewers, the Nats fell 5-2 during last night’s game.  John Lannan struggled with his fastball, and ended up taking the loss.  Lannan pitched five innings and gave up three runs, including a two run homer to Corey Hart.  Lannan also suffered a costly balk in the top of the fifth inning.  It’s unfortunate, but when your team’s offense isn’t very effective, mistakes like a balk are magnified.

Offense wise, Lastings Milledge hit his second home run of the season in the bottom of the sixth.  In the same inning, Elijah Dukes hit a single, his batting average is over .100 now, and he did look a little surprised to actually be on first base.  Dukes eventually advanced to second on a wild pitch.  Wil Nieves followed at the plate, and hit a rocket to right field, a double to score Dukes.

The bullpen though, couldn’t hold the Brewers.  Jesus Colome gave up a solo home run, and Hanrahan allowed an RBI double to Kendell.  The Nats had a chance for a comeback in the 9th inning.  After two errors by the Brewers third basemen, the Nats had runners on first and third with one out.  They couldn’t capitalize though, as both Dukes and Boone struck out.  It was a disappointing end to a would be rally.

Thankfully Sunday’s game had a different outcome.  After leading most the game, the Nats let a six run lead slip away.  They eventually broke the tie game in the bottom of the 9th when Elijah Dukes scored on a wild pitch.  It was a strange bit of symbolism that the Nats first run of the game came thanks to a wild pitch, and the last run of the game came thanks to the same mistake.

The boys got off to an early lead with Guzman, Milledge, and Pena all hitting doubles off of Brewers starter Manny Para.  Aaron Boone added to the Nats lead with a two run homer in the fifth inning.  With the Nats up 6-0 at the start of the 6th inning, it looked like Tim Redding, who pitched well for most of the game, would get his seventh win of the season.  Tim struggled during the top of the 6th when Corey Hart hit a two run homer.  Rivera came in as relief, but struggled also giving up a two run double.

The game was tied 6-6 when Rivera left the game.  Luis Ayala pitched two scoreless innings of relief.  There was a glitch in the scoring system today at the ballpark.  After Rivera pitched the 6th inning, and Ayala pitched the 7th and 8th, Jon Rauch entered to pitch the 9th inning.  However, all of the scoreboards had the inning listed as the 8th.   A mistake like that was probably pretty confusing for some of the 35,000 fans in attendance.  Rauch ended up pitching a scoreless ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Dukes had a very patient at bat and took a one out walk.  Dmitri Young entered to pinch hit, and hit a clutch single on which Dukes advanced to third. Then on a 1-0 count with Felipe Lopez at bat, Mota threw a fastball past the catcher, and Dukes took off, crossing the plate and scoring the winning run on another wild pitch. Final score today was 7-6.

The Nats Jason Bergmann faces the Brewers Ben Sheets tomorrow for the final game of the series at 1:35.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 9:42 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.