He faced the minimum number of batters and didn’t allow a hit through four, wiggling out of trouble twice before giving way to Shawn Kelley for the ninth. “I don’t know if we caught it in time”, said Dusty Baker, the Washington manager. “He’s given us everything we wanted”.
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Andrew McCutchen started the night 54 for 156 (.346 AVG) with seven doubles, two triples and 14 home runs in 42 career games against the Nationals with hits in six straight games in the nation’s capital.
Stephen Strasburg is doing more than just winning baseball games.
Up next: The Nationals and Pirates finish their series with a 1:35 p.m. first pitch. He is hitting.583 in his career against RHP Gerrit Cole, slated to come off the disabled list and start Saturday for Pittsburgh. “If I made one quality pitch I followed it up with a subpar (one)”, he said. “I thought he made pitches”.
Cole’s first major league appearance since June 10 was delayed 71 minutes by rain.
Kyle Hendricks allowed just three hits over six strong innings while the Chicago Cubs’ bats contributed with a five-run sixth in a 6-0 victory over the Texas Rangers.
Pittsburgh are 7-2 in their last 9 road games and are 9-3 in their last 12 overall while the Pirates are 9-3 in their last 12 games on grass.
“I was just telling myself I’m going to stick in there”, Strasburg said.
Robinson avenged the setback in the bottom half of the frame with an RBI single to center field that plated Wilson Ramos from second base to knot the game at 1.
But the Nats broke it open in the seventh with four runs. Anthony Rendon homered and also added an RBI single.
Danny Espinosa had an RBI double in the second to give the Nationals a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately the Pirates have dropped three in a row following a 6-0 defeat at Washington Saturday where nothing went well.
Pirates’ second baseman Josh Harrison fielded it on the run, but stumbled as he threw to first and sent it by the bag for a two-run error that made it 4-0 Nationals.
First baseman Clint Robinson, who drove in a run in the fifth, scored in the seventh on the combination of a wild pitch by reliever Neftali Feliz and a throwing error by catcher Eric Fryer.
This marks the second straight game in which Murphy won’t play, though he did appear in the All-Star Game on Tuesday and went 2-for-3 after taking over for Ben Zobrist. Washington are 14-4 in their last 18 home games and the over is 6-2 in their last 8 Sunday games while the Nationals are 38-17 in their last 55 Sunday games.
That Murphy’s injury occurred in the All-Star game, while unfortunate, doesn’t have Baker fretting over his players participating in the exhibition game. “I wasn’t going to walk away without getting it down”. Polanco, out since July 8, is not expected to play Sunday, but Hurdle stated, “we’re optimistic” with his progress.
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2B Daniel Murphy was a late scratch from the starting lineup Friday with “general leg soreness”, according to the Nationals. Kuhl’s lone road start came at Oakland on July 2, when he scattered two runs and seven hits across six innings without factoring in the decision.Scherzer wowed opposing hitters with velocity approaching 100 miles per hour in his single inning of work in Tuesday’s All-Star Game and is hoping to pick up right where he left off prior to the break. He threw a no-hitter against Pittsburgh on June 20, 2015.
