Baltimore Orioles’ Mark Trumbo, right, celebrates his two-run home run with Chris Davis (19) during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Monday, Aug. 22, 2016, in Baltimore. The series shifts 38 miles south to Nationals Park on Wednesday for the first of two games.
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“It’s a really good team”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.
Host Trevor Noah may have said it best on a recent episode of “The Daily Show” when discussing another team that’s recently been derided in its own sport: “The Philadelphia 76ers don’t need more basketball players; they need better basketball players”. “And if there’s just something a little off and he thinks it’s off, and he starts to worry about maybe he’s going down a slippery slope, and he knows what he had to go through to get back here and that whole Tommy John thing, I don’t mind that at all, especially if it’s going to make him 97, 98 in October in the playoffs. Yeah, we’ll get on a bus tonight and head over to Washington and play a good team two more times”. Since baseball returned to Washington in 2005, the Orioles own a 34-23 lead in the Beltway series.
After the number of years Joseph has committed to the organization, including parts of four seasons at Double-A Bowie, the Orioles clearly have an appreciation for the intangibles he brings to the game. CF Trea Turner drew a leadoff walk and went on to steal second base. After Ryan Zimmerman and Robinson singled to begin the inning against right-hander Vance Worley, Espinosa laced a single to right field for the Nationals.
Lopez mowed through the Atlanta Braves in his previous two outings.
Lopez ended up with six runs allowed – four of them earned – on seven hits and three walks. “You try to focus on the control and the zone and it’s not there”.
“I didn’t see him do that a ton on the film”, Murphy said, “so to kind of switch up on the fly right there was impressive”. “But that’s part of the game”.
Jonathan Schoop also homered for the Orioles, who had lost five of their previous six games – all at home.
Lopez’s struggles continued into the following inning. Jones would increase the lead to 3-0 on an infield single later in the inning. “I made a lot of mistakes over the middle of the plate, even after the strikeouts a lot of fastballs trying to get ahead and they were just middle cut and they drove them”.
Schoop tied it with his 20th homer in the third inning. The time off will hopefully allow Strasburg to return to form.
When leading after seven innings, Baltimore is 33-21, while Washington is 31-21. In the top of the 8th inning, Daniel Murphy was caught in a run down. He still got to the point where he was able to “look up, and somehow, I didn’t give up a run”. “Six runs compared to four runs is totally different, especially in this ballpark”.
Outfielder Jabari Blash was placed on the disabled list, retroactive to Friday, with a sprained left finger. Nationals RHP Joe Ross (right shoulder inflammation) did not experience any setbacks with his bullpen session Tuesday.
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The short outing almost spelled disaster for the Nationals’ bullpen, but Matt Belisle softened the blow by tossing three scoreless innings for his longest outing since 2011. Colorado had nine runs off of Strasburg, vs. just five outs.
