ZimmE5rman Errs, Harper Throws, Nats Lose

Braves 3, Nationals 1

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Braves	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1		3	8	1
Nationals	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0		1	4	1

Read the full box score at MLB

For the second straight day a Ryan Zimmerman throwing error proved costly.  In the 3rd inning, the Nats third baseman made a bad throw to first base with 2 outs, giving the Braves an opportunity to knock out a costly 2 run homer in a 3-1 victory on Saturday afternoon at Nats Park.   It was another tough loss for the Nationals coming off a blown 9th inning just one day ago sending 42,000 people home with frowns with just a Gio Gonzalez bobblehead to comfort them.


With the pitching matchup of Tim Hudson vs Stephen Strasburg, the team that played the cleanest game and made the least mistakes was going to eke out a win.  On Saturday, that team happened to be the Braves.

@nationals thanks for the Gio bobblehead! Love the #Nats! #natitude twitter.com/18mcguire/stat…
— Patrick McGuire (@18mcguire) April 13, 2013

The Nationals offense produced their lowest output of hits on the season, notching just 4 hits against Hudson.  With a few base-running mistakes when they did get on base and a lack of hitting the Nats were no match for Hudson.  The Braves starter threw just 90 pitches in 7 innings of work, helping him earn his 2nd win of the season.

Strasburg was a bit shaky in his third start of the season.  Coming off a game where he tossed 114 pitches in just 5 1/3 inning, Strasburg needed 112 pitches to get through 6.  While he was throwing more balls than usual he did 5-hit the Braves while striking out 7 and being charged with 0 earned runs (Zimmerman's error netted 2).

Danny Espinosa hit his first homer of the season and Bryce Harper did throw out a runner at home plate with a perfect throw early in the game, but the Nats didn't have much else to celebrate on the day.  Late in the game Wilson Ramos appeared to pull a hamstring running out a grounder to first base, seemingly making Kurt Suzuki the goto catcher for the time being.

After picking up an insurance run on Ryan Mattheus, Craig Kimbrel came in to pick up his 6th save of the season.  By that point Nats fans on Twitter had already given up on the team, I guess not remembering last season when they helped give Kimbrel a blown save.

The Zimmerman error turned out to be the dagger.

The Nats try to fend off the sweep tomorrow with Gio Gonzalez on the mound.