Washington picks up first win of the season
It is the reason the Nationals brought closer Matt Capps to Washington. Bottom of the ninth, a one-run lead and the defending National League champion sending its top three hitters to the plate.
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The past few seasons that has often been treacherous territory for Major League Baseball’s worst team. For this one afternoon, though, everything turned out well.
Capps gave up a leadoff double to Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley. He then walked slugger Ryan Howard on purpose. But three consecutive pop outs allowed Capps to walk the tightrope unscathed in a 6-5 win at Nationals Park on Thursday.
“That would have been a tough one [to lose],” said Nats manager Jim Riggleman.
But his team took the series finale after allowing 19 runs in the first two games and walking 17 batters combined. So Washington (1-2) begins a six-game road trip to New York and Philadelphia in a far better frame of mind. Starting pitcher Craig Stammen pitched five innings, walked none and induced ground outs from 11 Phillies batters. He also didn’t give up a home run. Yet Philadelphia’s powerful offense still managed four runs off him. Stammen gave up nine hits as the Phillies kept the ball in play. That was, he said, because he struggled to control any of his secondary pitches.
“We needed to play well and we needed to win,” Stammen said. “We all knew that and the whole team contributed to this win — defense, hitting, bullpen.”
Philadelphia tied the game at 5-5 on a sacrifice fly by Jimmy Rollins in the sixth inning, erasing what had been a three-run deficit. But Ryan Zimmerman’s bloop double in the bottom of the seventh scored Alberto Gonzalez with what proved to be the winning run. Zimmerman finished 2-for-4 with two doubles. Willie Harris hit a two-run home run in the fourth.
“Those guys aren’t going to go anywhere,” Harris said of the relentless Phillies. “You see how they play ball. They move runners, they hit ground balls, they get guys in. They came back on us. But who else but [Zimmerman] to get the big hit.”
