The Skinny: Following a loss on Friday, the Washington Nationals got back on track on Saturday with a win. The Nationals topped the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-8 on Saturday in a bit of a slug fest. The Nationals win improves their record on the season to 13-18
The Pitching: Matt Chico started for the Nationals, looking for his first win of the season. While the Nats did score plenty of runs, they were not able to get Chico his first win. Chico lasted only 4.1 innings, give up up 4 ER on 8 hits. He had a tough time keeping runners off base. Jesus Colome got the win has he threw 1.2 innings of scoreless relief taking over for Chico. Jon Rauch threw a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his seventh save of the season.
The Hitting: After the second inning the Nationals had already built a 5-1 lead. The pitching couldn’t hold many leads so the hitters had to keep putting runs up on the board. Cristian Guzman was a one man wrecking crew for the Nationals as he went 4-5 with six RBI. Guzman had a double and a home run to go with a pair of singles. Austin Kearns continued to swing the bat little bit better as he got a pair of singles himself. Ryan Zimmerman went 0-5.
What’s Next?: Tim Redding will take the hill for Washington on Sunday afternoon as they continue their series with the Pirates.