A record sized crowd at Nationals Park saw the Washington Nationals defeat their cross town rivals from Baltimore 4-2. The Nationals got some timely hitting and excellent pitching as they upped their record on the season to 32-49.
Odalis Perez started on the mound for the Nationals but lasted only four innings. However, in his four innings of work he gave up no runs on only three hits. He struck out three batters. Joel Hanrahan got the win as he threw a scoreless seventh inning. Jon Rauch nailed down his 16th save of the season as he threw a scoreless ninth inning.
The Nationals got two runs in the first inning to take an early 2-0 lead. With the game tied at two in the seventh inning, Kory Casto singled in a run. Elijah Dukes later singled Casto in to give the Nationals the 4-2 lead. Lastings Milledge and Dmitri Young led the Nationals with two hits each.
The Nationals will play the Orioles again this evening as they look to take the first two games of the series. John Lannan will be the starting pitcher for Washington. Game time is 7:10pm.