The Washington Nationals continued their steady play by splitting their first two games in Arizona against the very talented Diamondbacks. The Nationals won 7-4 on Friday night, but fell on Saturday against Arizona ace Brandon Webb by a score of 4-0. Following the split, the Nationals are now 24-33 this season.
Tim Redding started for Washington on Friday but didn’t factor in the decision. Redding lasted 5.1 innings and gave up three runs before getting pulled and handing the game over to the bullpen. Joel Hanrahan came on after Redding and threw 1.2 scoreless innings to pick up his first win of the season. Jon Rauch threw a perfect ninth inning to pick up his 12th save of the season. On Saturday, Jason Bergmann started for the Nationals but was no match for Brandon Webb. Bergmann picked up the loss after threw all eight innings for the Nationals and obviously gave up all four runs. Bergmann struck out eight batters and walked no one. He was actually very sharp for the most part but gave up four solo home runs to Arizona. That’ll do it every time.
On Friday night at the plate the Nats got plenty of offense, scoring seven runs off of the D’Backs staff. Cristian Guzman had three hits to up his average on the season to an impressive .310. With the game tied at three in the seventh inning, Willie Harris clubbed a three run homer for the Nationals to put the game out of reach. Dmitri Young had two hits while Jesus Flores had two RBI. On Saturday, the Nationals just couldn’t get it going at the plate against Brandon Webb. The Nationals managed only six hits all night and failed to push a single runner across home plate. Lastings Milledge led the Nationals with two hits. Willie Harris, after his big homer on Friday, went 0-4 with three K’s on Saturday.
The Nationals and the Diamondbacks will play the rubber game of their series on Sunday afternoon. Shawn Hill will start for the Nationals, while Dan Haren will go for Arizona. Game time is 4:10pm.
