Photo by Cheryl Nichols/Nationals News Network

The brooms were kept tucked away Thursday night at Nationals Park when San Diego right-hander Mat Latos dominated the Washington Nationals over seven innings preventing a series sweep.

“He threw a good ball game or two against us before tonight,” Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman said about Latos after the game. “We saw him out there at their place and he was every bit the same tonight. He was tough.”

Latos kept the Nats scoreless through seven, holding Washington to five hits over two walks and eight strikeouts to secure the 7-1 victory. He even helped himself out in the fourth with a solo shot to the leftfield bleachers off Nats starter Luis Atilano.

A kid caught that homerun ball but the pitchers inside the San Diego pen knew better than to let the him keep it. Why? It was Latos’ first career homerun, so they traded the kid four Major League baseballs for the Latos keepsake.

Otherwise, the Nats offense was less than lackluster. They stranded eleven base runners over eight hits.

Roger Bernadina, who went 2-for-4 with a double, scored on an RBI-single from Adam Dunn in the eighth to prevent the shutout.

Tomorrow night Stephen Strasburg is scheduled to take the mound for a series opener at 7:05 from Nationals Park against the San Francisco Giants.

Rachel Levitin

Rachel moved to DC in the fall of 2005 to study Journalism and Music at American University. When she’s not keeping up with the latest Major League Baseball news, she works on making music as an accomplished singer-songwriter and was even a featured performer/speaker at TEDxDupont Circle in 2012. Rachel has also contributed to The Washington Examiner and MASN Sports’ Nationals Buzz as a guest blogger. See why she loves DC. E-Mail: rachel@welovedc.com.