Bronson Arroyo was on fire. He only gave up 3 hits in 7 innings of play. From the looks of things, he was going to pitch a complete game and if that was the case the Nationals had no chance of winning the game. However, Dusty Baker stepped in and the Nationals picked up the 2-1 victory in 13 innings.
Baker pulled Arroyo in the 8th inning after getting the first out. Bronson had thrown 94 pitches but Baker may have taken him out for a pitching matchup. In stepped Xavier Nady who was pinch hitting for a pinch hitter. 2 pitches later and we had a tie ball game as Nady's homerun tipped off the glove of Reds RF Ryan Ludwick and into the Reds bullpen for the home run. Dusty Baker, meet Davy Johnson.
Jordan Zimmermann also pitched a heck of a game just about matching Arroyo. Zim pitched 7 innings of 3 hit baseball. The Nationals bullpen came in to pitch 6 innings and only gave up 2 hits. Especially impressive were Tom Gorzelanny (2 innings 3 strikeouts) and Craig Stammen (struck out 6 of the 7 batters he faced in this series)
Another questionable move from Dusty Baker happened in the 12th inning when he pinch hit a rookie for the veteran Willie Harris to lay down a sac bunt with 0 out and a runner on 2nd. The rook, Zack Cozart, popped up the bunt and saved the Nationals chances.
Jayson Werth was pumped up the whole game after a bad strikeout early in the contest. You could see some fire in his actions and with the bases loaded in the 13th inning you knew he was going to come through with a base hit. (Pretty sure Werth HATES playing here) Nats win a 4 hour game.
They do it again today at 4pm and hope to win their third series of the season with a victory. E-Jax vs Homer Bailey.
If the Nats can ever score some runs, they are going to be a dangerous team, until then, let's hope they luck out in these 1 run games and 8th inning comebacks.
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