Roark had gone at least six innings in 12 of his previous 13 starts but struggled with his command from the onset Wednesday. The Washington Nationals right-hander went 2.2 innings, gave up six runs (four earned) on seven hits, struck out two, and walked three on 82 pitches (48 strikes) in the loss. He swung at the first pitch, a 96-mph fastball, and made hard contact, but the connection produced a groundball right at Schoop, who initiated a 4-6-3 double play to halt the improbable comeback attempt.
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Washington got its lone run in the seventh inning when Danny Espinosa singled in a run off Vance Worley, who worked three innings for his first career save.
Bryce Harper singled in the next at bat and scored on a double by Anthony Rendon, 10-8, and Wilson Ramos reached on a fielder’s choice that failed to get Rendon at second.
Brad Brach later struck out Ryan Zimmerman to end the inning with runners on second and third, and Zach Britton pitched the ninth for his 38th save.
The Orioles poured salt in the wound with five runs in the eighth. Wieters then hit a three-run homer to straight away center off Blake Treinen to make it 10-3. Daniel Murphy (.347, 75 Rs, 23 HRs, 90 RBIs, 3 SBs) has been doing well offensively for the Nationals, going 2 for 3 yesterday with one RBI.
Turner was finally retired for the first out in the top of the ninth Wednesday.
“He is a good player”. “Our head trainer came in and gave me the thumbs up”, manager Dusty Baker said. With the win, the Orioles have now won the season series from the Nationals for five straight seasons.
Strangely, Baltimore has quietly dominated Washington in the rivalry, taking the season series each of the past four years.
Holland is 5-5 with a 5.20 ERA in 14 starts for the Rangers this season. It’s the first time the right-hander will face an AL team. It was the first inning, and Roark had recorded one out.
The Orioles (68-56) were hitless until Schoop led off the third with a moon shot over the left-field foul pole for his 20th home run. Out of the six outs he did get, five came via the strikeout and he didn’t walk a batter so there was some positives to take out of the game. With the score 4-0 and the bases loaded. After Rendon connected in the fourth, Baltimore took a 4-2 lead in the bottom half. The Orioles are a power hitting team with an MLB-best 194 home runs. It was his shortest outing since June 5, when he went three innings at Cincinnati.
“I am proud of the guys”. We caught a couple young pitchers, but we had a couple young pitchers, too, that did well. He was slated to start here Thursday against Washington, but RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (5-10, 6.94) will get the nod against Nationals RHP Max Scherzer (13-7, 3.05).
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The 28-year-old Strasburg (15-4, 3.59 ERA) was willing to pitch through the pain, but with a comfortable lead in the National League East, the Nationals decided it was best to let him rest and recover before finishing out the regular season.
