The Washington Nationals continued a recent trend June 17, scoring eight runs against the Orioles in game one of the “battle of the beltway.”
They needed the offense Friday night, as starting pitcher Jason Marquis had to work his way out of jams the entire night. It was a miracle that the Orioles only scored four runs given that they recorded 18 hits.
“He [Marquis] was struggling,” Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman said. “Baltimore’s been tough on him but he kept getting ground balls when he needed to, to limit the damage.”
The O’s scored two runs in the top of inning number four on a single by second baseman Robert Andino and a surprising double by starting pitcher Zach Britton.
The Nats took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, scoring four runs. Shortstop Ian Desmond gave the Nats the lead with a single to left. Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman singled him in later in the inning to make it a 4-2 Nationals’ lead.
Washington scored three more in the bottom of the sixth inning, with RBIs coming off the bats of Jerry Hairston Jr., Jayson Werth and Desmond.
Roger Bernadina hit his third home run of the season in the bottom of the eighth inning to make it an 8-4 Nationals’ lead.
Ryan Mattheus came in to pitch for the Nats in the ninth to shut the door on the Orioles.
A few weeks ago the Nats were a team that had been in an offensive slump essentially the entire season. Not anymore. The team has now won seven games in a row and has averaged over eight runs a game in their last four contests.
Riggleman has continuously praised the team for playing good baseball, even when they were losing. Now that good play is finally showing up in the results.
“Guys are tired of hearing about how good they’re playing but we’re not winning games,” Riggleman said. “It’s just the nature of the game. If you play good eventually you’re gonna win games, and we’ve done that here lately.”
Riggleman said he believes that if this game had taken place earlier in the season, with the way the team swung the bats early on, there is no way they would have won.
“The four runs they scored would have been too much earlier because we were scoring one, two or none and we knew we were better than that,” he said.
Over the last week or so, the Nationals have shown that they are better than that, as it has all come together. The offense has come alive. Pitchers have shut the opposition down. And the Nationals have made Charlie Sheen very proud.