courtesy of MudflapDC
The Nationals lineup was no match for Atlanta’s right-handed starter Tim Hudson who secured his second win of the season with a 3-1 Braves victory in Washington. The afternoon’s loss was Washington’s second in two days versus Atlanta.
An early throwing error by Ryan Zimmerman in the third inning cost Washington two runs when left fielder Justin Upton stole second ahead of catcher Evan Gattis’ two-out two-run homer. It wasn’t Stephen Strasburg’s strongest outing either, which didn’t help the Nats.
On the first Saturday day game in DC of the season, a sellout with a paid of attendance of 41,992, Strasburg pitched six innings and gave up five hits, two runs (both unearned), issued one walk, fanned seven batters, threw one wild pitch, and hit a batter. He threw 112 pitches, 66 for strikes.His command just wasn’t there today, according to Manager Davey Johnson.
Washington’s bats only managed four hits including second baseman Danny Espinosa’s two-out solo homerun — his first of the year — off Hudson in the fifth. Bryce Harper went 0-for-3 with one strikeout while leadoff hitting center fielder Denard Span, right fielder Jayson Werth, and Zimmerman each hit singles all off Hudson as well.
It was a one run game between the Braves and Nationals up until the top of the ninth when Atlanta’s first baseman Chris Johnson scored on a Jason Heyward groundout off right-handed reliever Ryan Mattheus. It’s going to be a season-long battle between these two teams who will continue to fight for the top spot in the National League East.
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.
