Espinosa leads Nationals to 6-2 victory over Pirates

The Washington Nationals were able to win the weekend series with the Pirates with a 6-2 victory Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. Gio Gonzalez recovered from a rough 1st inning to throw 6 strong innings of two-run baseball, and Tyler Moore and Danny Espinosa homered and drove in three runs each.

Inconsistent continues to be the word that best describes Gio’s 2013 season. Gonzalez threw eight innings of one hit ball against the Cincinnati Reds on the April 25th, and then was hammered by the Braves for 6 runs in his last outing. Four batters into his start against the Pirates, it looked like another short and ineffective start for Gio. After Starling Marte led off the game with a home run(Gio’s 2nd consecutive start with a leadoff homerun) Jordy Mercer hit a double, Andrew McCutchen reached on an error, and Gaby Sanchez worked a walk. Gio, however, would only give up one run and escaped the jam by striking out Russell Martin and Michael McKenry and getting Brandon Inge to ground out. Aside from Martin’s RBI double in the fifth, Gio was outstanding the rest of his outing. He lowered his ERA to 4.97 and picked up his third win of the young season.

After the early one run deficit, the offense was able to quickly tie the game on a 2nd inning sacrifice fly off the bat of Danny Espinosa. Espinosa wasn’t done however. In the fourth inning, he gave Gio a 3-1 lead with a line drive two run home-run to left, his 3rd of the year. After the Pirates trimmed the deficit to one run in the fifth, Tyler Moore hit a hanging slider from right hander Bryan Morris over the left field wall for a three run jack, opening the lead to 6-2. Rafael Soriano pitched a scoreless ninth to seal the series victory for Washington.

Next Game:
May 7th, 7:05 ET

RHP Jordan Zimmermann(5-1, 1.64) vs. RHP Anibal Sanchez(3-2, 1.82)