The Skinny: John Smoltz became the 16th player in MLB history to pick up 3,000 career strike outs, but he took the loss tonight against the Washington Nationals. The Nats defeated the Braves 6-0 and improved their record on the year to 6-15.
The Pitching: John Lannan made his second strong start in a row (6 innings, 11K’s last week) by throwing seven innings of shut out ball. Lannan allowed only five hits and struck out four batters to pick up his first win of the season. Jon Rauch threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning and struck out two batters in the process to finish the off the shut out.
The Hitting: Four Nationals batters picked up two hits tonight (Lopez, Milledge, Harris, and Nieves). A Harris RBI double in the 2nd made the score 1-0 and it stayed that way all the way up until the 9th inning. The Nats scored five runs in the ninth off of Braves reliever Jorge Campillo, only one of the runs was earned thanks to an error. The Nats scored due to the error along with three hits and three walks.
What’s Next?: The Nats will start a two game series at home against the Mets on Wednesday night. Tim Redding (3-1) will start for the Nationals against Mets ace Johan Santana.