Dave Jagler called it a "Houdini." A good portion of the fans, booing, called it ugly. Whatever it was, Joel Hanrahan recorded his second save in as many days, helping the Nationals along to their 3rd win.

After sitting through another rain delay, tonights only one hour, but with heavy rain fall, The Nats fell behind early, giving up 3 runs in a top of the First that included two hurtful walks and some sloppy fielding.  National bats fought back early, and with a even performance across the line. Flores drove in one with a double in the 2nd, and the big bats came in handy in the sixth. 

Leading off the sixth, Adam Dunn blasted a clear shot to deep center. Following his fourth of the year, Dukes reached on an error and Austin Kearns hit a shot to left that Diaz somehow let roll right by him. With two outs following, and Kearns stuck at third, a timely pinch hit from Josh Willingham drove in the go-ahead run in Kearns.

Pitching just went right tonight. Shairon Martis scattered 6 hits, allowing 3 runs in a sloppy first, but cruising through 6 innings to record his second win. The bullpen pitched 4 straight shutout innings. I repeat: The bullpen pitched 4 straight shutout innings.

Hinkley came on to work the 7th, and part of the 8th, followed by Tavarez. Joel Hanrahan marched on to close it out in the ninth and did so...dangerously.

After walking the lead off, he promptly served up a double to Schafer to put runners on second and third. With the blown save in scoring position, Hanrahan pulled three consecutive outs from his hat. While not very convincing, commanding or impressive, Hanrahan may have drew the boos of a hefty amount of fans present, but he did record the save, and the Nationals did win.

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment