Nats Can't Hit, Pitching Beats Rays

Nationals 3, Rays 2

On his 111th pitch of the night, the radar gun read 98mph as Stephen Strasburg (9-1) struck out his 10th batter, ending another great outing for the star pitcher.  Strassy pitched 7 innings of 5 hit & 2 run baseball and the Nationals went on to pick up the win against the Rays on Wednesday night by a score of 3-2.  The Nats Offense didn't help much, they got 3 hits...all in the 1st inning.

The Rays also had a great pitching performance, this one by rookie Sterling Chris Archer.  Archer was shelled in the first inning for all 3 Nats runs, but he not only settled down, but his performance closely resembled Strasburg's.  The rookie gave up only 3 hits and 2 earned runs on the night while striking out 7.  He also did it on 30 less pitches than Strassy.  Remember his name, he looked like he may one day become a great pitcher.

The Nationals offense is just awful.  No hits in 8 innings?  Plus they are not scoring enough runs.  A good team will not let up after scoring 3 in the first inning, but the Nats bats disappeared for the rest of the game.  I know the pitcher was throwing well, but I put this more on the Nats offense.

Harper & Desmond got the RBIs for the Nats and the other run was scored on a shoulda-been out at 3rd that went into the dugout allowing the Nats to score.

Joel Peralta came out in the 8th inning to a bunch of boos and nothing happened.

Tyler Clippard came in to pick up his 10 save on the year.

The Nats look to get the bats going tomorrow to finish up with the Rays...