Game 78 Recap-
The Washington Nationals rode an enthusiastic sell out crowd and some clutch hitting to beat the Baltimore Orioles 4-2 Friday night in the opener of a 3 game interleague series. 35,380 fans packed the beautiful new $611 million Nationals Park and saw some good pitching with timely run producing hits by the hometeam.
“It was nice to see it,” Nationals manager Manny Acta said. “I got to give it to our fans. They knew what they were getting into — and the [rebuilding] plan that we’re into — and we’re still averaging 30,000 people at night. There are teams in the major leagues in first, second place drawing 20,000 or 15,000. Tonight was great. I could tell right after batting practice it was going to be a great crowd because of the Orioles fans here, too.”
The Nationals scored 2 runs in the 1st off of Os starter, RH Daniel Cabrera(5-4,4.53) on rbi singles from CF Lastings Milledge and C Jesus Flores. Veteran Nationals starter,LH Odalis Perez(2-5,3.87), was working on a short pitch count in his 1st start since missing almost a month with shoulder tendinitis. He pitched 4 shutout innings with 3 hits allowed while walking 3 and K-ing the same number.
Baltimore tied the game with a run in both the 5th and 6th vs the long relief of Washington. RP Steven Shell(1.80 era over 5 innings) allowed an rbi groundout from RF Nick Markakis in the 5th and recent call up SS Brian Fahey singled in CF Adam Jones in the 6th to square the score at 2.
Cabrera pitched well but the Nationals got to him in the 7th. After a leadoff walk, PH Kory Castro doubled home the tie breaking run. RF Elijah Dukes singled in Castro to make it 4-2. RHs Joel Hanrahan(4.38) & Luis Ayala(18th hold) pitched the 7th and 8th without any damage for the Nats. 6’11 closer RH Jon Rauch(2.23) pitched the 9th for this 16th save on the year.
Star of the Game-
Nationals team— This team does not have a lot of resources but play hard. Acta is among the top managers in the game and this team shows up.
Orioles Notes-
Game start was delayed by rain for 13 minutes….Baltimore has been outscored 57-34 in the 1st inning…Jones led the team with 3 hits…Bad news regarding RH Matt Albers(3-3,3.49). The MRI on his injured throwing arm showed a torn labrum, he is taking some time to decide whether to rehabilitate with(2 months or more) or without surgery(8-9 months)
Next Game-
Saturday 7:10 PM Nationals Park
Os LH Garrett Olson(5-3,5.01) vs Nationals LH John Lannan(4-8,3.34)
