Wilson Ramos and his Washington teammates emerged from their offensive slumps a bit on Tuesday, and the Nationals earned a needed win.
Advertisement
After Godley exited the game, right hander Addison Reed came on and threw two scoreless innings in relief and struck out one. His hit against reliever David Hernandez (0-2) on Tuesday drove in first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and left fielder Jayson Werth, whose double sent Zimmerman to third.
“I was trying to hit the ball in the air and try to bring one of those runners, get that single, ” Ramos said.
“This opportunity I did it and that made me feel excited”, Ramos said. “That’s a good day for me and now (I can) go back to sleep and have a good dream”.
Ramos broke an 0-for-17 skid with an RBI single in the ninth inning Monday night. Arizona SS Nick Ahmed homered on Monday and is 6-for-8 in his last two games after going 4-for-53 in his previous 15.3. Nationals manager Matt Williams, a former Diamondbacks third baseman, was on the coaching staff of Arizona during the 2013 season before he got the head job in Washington…. Bryce Harper is 15-for-46 (.326) in his last 12 contests overall and carries an eight-game hitting streak against the Diamondbacks.
The Washington Nationals were 7-13 in late April before winning 20 of their next 25 games. The Nationals allowed a season-high four homers, including one by new right-handed closer Jonathan Papelbon, and trailed, 6-0, before rallying for four runs during the bottom of the ninth inning. Two runs scored, and the Nationals led 5-3.
LHP Patrick Corbin, who missed all of last year after Tommy John surgery, will make his sixth start on Tuesday against the Nationals in Washington. It’s a word that gets thrown around frequently in baseball, although there’s no single statistical prerequisite that qualifies a starting pitcher as being one.
The D-backs scored three runs in the 4th inning off Max Scherzer by getting a RBI hit from Jarrod Saltalamacchia and a 2-run double from Chris Owings. “You could see they wanted to swing at some pitches, and either got half-swings or just ground balls for us that may have been balls”.
NOTES: The start of the game was delayed 30 minutes by threatening weather, though the tarp was not put on the field. He leads Nationals starters in virtually every major category, including innings, wins, strikeouts, complete games, shutouts, ERA, WHIP, FIP, and BLIP. He’s the first pitcher to reach that milestone in a Washington uniform.
It was a dud of a setback, as right-handed starter Doug Fister, who had a 2.41 ERA last year, saw his ERA rise to 4.60 this season after giving up a season-high three home runs. The left-hander needed 36 pitches to get through the first, and Hale, wanting to be cautious, pulled him in the second.
Diamondbacks: Manager Chip Hale said he’s still not sure about the future of his starting rotation.
Williams received some criticism for not using Papelbon and Storen during the three-game series in New York even though the Nationals didn’t have the lead late in the games. Strasburg said although he felt fine after striking out 11 in 5 2/3 innings during a rehab start with Triple-A Syracuse Monday, there was still no timetable for his return.
Advertisement
“I think we just had a good plan tonight as a team”, Ahmed said.
