After a series win against Baltimore yesterday, the Nats headed to Florida to take on the hard hitting Marlins. With Tim Redding on the mound, the Marlins got off to an early lead scoring a run in the first. The Nats seemed stumped by Marlins starter Tucker’s stuff in the first couple of innings, but they battled back after Willie Harris got hit by a pitch, and Guzman drove him in with a two out single.
The Marlins broke the tie in the 3rd, after Jeremy Hermida doubled, then Josh Willingham homered off a fastball to left field, putting the Fish up 3-1. The Nats tried to battled back in the top of the 4th with Belliard and Lo Duca knocking out singles. Willie Harris followed with a sharply hit single to score Belliard. Tim Redding then walked to load the bases, but Roger Bernadina grounded to second to end the inning the score still 3- Marlins.
The game got exciting in the 5th when the Nats took the lead thanks to solo homers from Elijah Dukes and Dmitri Young, put the Nats up 4-3. Tim Redding pitched the 5th with a little drama. He allowed walks to both Hanley Ramirez and Jeremy Hermida. Redding pitched out the inning getting an infield fly and a strike out. With his pitch count at almost 100 I thought for sure we would see a pinch hitter for Redding and a reliever start the 6th. I was wrong though, Manny let Tim start the 6th, but Tim worked himself into a jam, putting runners on third and first with no outs. Redding was relieved in favor of Jesus Colome. Colome’s first pitch was a fly ball to Bernadina, Ross barreled home and Bernadina’s throw home was awful, way off line, Colome actually caught it. All of the runners advanced on the play and the Marlins tied the game 4-4. Tim Redding earned yet another no decision.
Saul Rivera came in to pitch the 7th and catcher Jesus Flores was also removed and replaced by Wil Nieves. Rivera pitched a 1-2-3 7th thanks to a pretty good catch from Lo Duca in left. Ronnie Belliard lead off the 8th with a walk. With Paul Lo Duca up, Ronnie Belliard got a great jump off first and Lo Duca laced a single up the middle and Belliard reached third. Lopez entered the game to pinch run for Lo Duca, and the Nats had runners on third and first with one out. Then Ronnie Belliard was able to score on a wild pitch by Pinto to put the Nats in the lead by one.
Saul pitched an outstanding scoreless 8th getting two big strike outs. The Nats couldn’t score in the top of the 9th and Jon Rauch came in to close the game. Looks like with Cordero out for the season and maybe longer, we’ll be seeing Rauch as closer from here on out. Jon Rauch got a strike out but promptly gave up a monster solo homer on a 1-2 count to Hanley Ramirez to tie the game and send it into extra innings.
The Marlins won the game 6-5 when Josh Willingham hit another home run in the 10th inning off Rauch. This was a tough one to loose as the guys had battled back all game. Hopefully we see some good stuff from Collin Balester in his major league debut tomorrow night.
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