Adam Dunn hit his 26th homer and Livan Hernandez baffled Arizona’s hitters with syrupy curveballs into the eighth inning, lifting the Washington Nationals to a 3-1 win over the Diamondbacks on Monday night.
Ivan Rodriguez became the fifth catcher to hit 300 homers with a solo shot off Rodrigo Lopez (5-10) in the second, and Dunn hit another into the swimming pool in right-center the next inning. Hernandez (8-7) didn’t need much more than that, keeping the Diamondbacks off balance with a curveball that barely cracked 60 mph at times.
Recommended Stories
Sean Burnett got the final five outs for his first save since closer Matt Capps was traded, helping the Nationals win for the third time in 10 road games.
A barely-audible crowd of 16,793 — 129 more than the smallest ever at Chase Field — came out to watch two last-place teams, but still managed to affect the game.
A small group of fans in left field caused a delay of about a minute in the bottom of the first inning by draping a sign addressed to Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick over the wall to protest the new immigration law in Arizona.
Plate umpire Angel Hernandez halted the game when he saw the large sign that read: “Mr. Kendrick … Stop the hate. Say no to SB1070.” Nationals left fielder Josh Willingham tried to get the fans to take the sign down without success before a security guard came out and pulled it off the wall.
On the field, Hernandez baffled the Diamondbacks with his hard-breaking, sometimes-softserve array of pitches. A member of the 2007 NL West-winning Diamondbacks, Hernandez topped out in the mid-80s with his fastball and had Arizona’s hitters out on their front foot with extensive use of his barely-pop-a-bubble curveball.
The right-hander gave up a run on Gerardo Parra’s groundout in the second inning and retired 18 of the next 19 hitters before being lifted with two on and one out in the eighth. He allowed one run on five hits with five strikeouts.
Homers have hurt Lopez all season and walks were the problem his last start, so of course that’s how the Nationals beat him. The first inning was the walks; Willingham followed two with a run-scoring single for the first run.
Rodriguez then led off the second inning with his second homer of the season to join Mike Piazza, Carlton Fisk, Johnny Bench and Yogi Berra in the all-catchers 300 club. Another solo long ball came in the third inning, this one a really long one by Dunn that careened off the wall behind the pool and bounced back into the water, sending the swimmers scrambling.
The right-hander didn’t have any more walks or homers over the next four innings, but it didn’t matter the way Hernandez was pitching. Lopez gave up three runs on seven hits in seven innings and has allowed an NL-worst 27 homers.
