Washington Nationals Lose Tough Series Opener In Milwaukee 6-5
By Nick Engle
The Washington Nationals lost in a heart breaker to the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 at Miller Park to start their weekend set.
The Nats got things started early tonight in the top of the first with a Denard Span double of the wall in deep right field. Bryce Harper got his chance with Span still on second two batters later and his massive swing may have fooled Jean Segura as his squibbed right in front of second caused Segura to throw it away, allowing Span to score from second.
Milwaukee would respond quickly in the bottom of the first with a triple off the bat of Ryan Braun, which scored Gerardo Parra. With only one out and a man on third, Roark was able to escape the inning without any damage by getting Adam Lind to pop out to second and Aramis Ramirez to ground out weakly back to the mound.
Washington again responded in the top of the second when Clint Robinson hit the first home run of his major league career to the upper deck in right field. His solo shot gave the Nats a 2-1 lead.
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After this initial flurry, both pitchers settled down a bit until the top of the fourth where the Brewers’ defense fell apart a bit. After Robinson and Michael Taylor both singled, Span singled to shallow center, scoring Robinson. Plus, Taylor and Span both advanced 90 feet after an overthrow to home by Parra. Rendon then put the ball in play and what should have been an easy ground out to third ended up in another error. Taylor and Span scored on the play to make the score 5-1.
That would be the last of the offense for the Nationals as they were shut out the rest of the night.
The Brewers’ responded, as they did all night, in the bottom of the fourth. Braun continued his good night with a single up the middle and Lind followed with a double to deep left that did not score Braun, but left runners on second and third with no outs. Milwaukee then played good small ball with two ground outs that scored both Braun and Lind to make the score 5-3.
The Brewers were not done. In the following inning, starting pitcher Matt Garza lead off with a single. After a series of ground outs and fielder’s choices, Jonathan Lucroy ended up on second with two outs. After a Braun walk, Adam Lind came through in the clutch with a single to right to score Lucroy and cut the Nats lead to 5-4. After a scoreless sixth, Tanner Roark took the mound for the seventh and gave up a massive Gerardo Parra homer to deep center to tie the game at five.
That score would hold until things got a bit weird in the bottom of the eight inning. Aaron Barrett started out the inning with an Aramis Ramirez strike out, but he was able to reach on a wild pitch. Shane Peterson then grounded into what seemed to be a double play, but Anthony Rendon threw it away, allowing Peterson to reach second on an error. With two outs, Scooter Gennett singled down the left field line to score Peterson to make the final score 6-5.
Aaron Barrett would leave the game in the bottom of the eight inning after the Gwinnett at-bat due to injury. Casey Janssen came in and walked one batter before getting Jonathan Lucroy to ground out to end the inning.
Next Game: The Washington Nationals (31-29) will play game two of their four game series tomorrow night against the Milwaukee Brewers (23-38) at 8:10 PM ET on MASN2. Jordan Zimmermann (5-3, 3.18 ERA) will get the start for the Nats against Mike Fiers (2-6, 4.06 ERA) for Milwaukee.