Zimmermann rebounds with six shutout innings
Major League Baseball’s trade deadline came and went without any more action by the Nationals, who made a pair of trades on Saturday. That allowed the players to focus on the task at hand: winning games.
Washington did just that on Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park. Starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann rebounded from a pair of sub-par outings to toss six shutout innings and Ian Desmond produced a game-winning infield hit in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Nats to a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets.
Washington (51-56) took two of three games from the Mets (55-53) over the weekend and earned its first series victory since July 4-7 against the Chicago Cubs. The Nats are now 2-4 on the current nine-game homsestand. Three consecutive doubles by Ian Desmond, Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse drove home a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a scoreless tie.
“Talking last night how it seems like we’re kind of a streaky club,” outfielder Jayson Werth said. “Hopefully this will get us going and take us into the next series and even further than that.”
| Nats notes |
| » Washington manager Davey Johnson said that Ross Detwiler will start Thursday’s game at Colorado and Tom Gorzelanny will remain in the bullpen for the time being. |
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| Michael Morse had a pair of doubles and now has 11 in his last 21 games and 26 on the season. |
| » Nats starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann didn’t earn a decision. But he allowed seven hits and just one walk in six shutout innings and struck out six. His ERA stands at 3.12. |
Reliever Sean Burnett gave up a solo home run to pinch-hitter Scott Hairston leading off the seventh. Shortly after, a pair of relievers bedeviled by trade rumors all week – Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen – learned they would remain with Washington as the trade deadline expired at 4 p.m. Then they actually got to pitch. Clippard retired all three batters he faced in the eighth inning with one called strikeout and a pair of pop outs. He lowered his ERA to just 1.63 in 48 appearances.
Storen, meanwhile, came in for the ninth inning and earned another big ovation from the crowd of 25,307. The same thing happened Saturday night, but then he didn’t know if he’d put on a Nats uniform again thanks to persistent reports about trade talks with the Minnesota Twins. The day still took a sour turn for Storen, however, when Hairston launched his second home run in three innings to tie the game at 2.
“Probably the weirdest day of my career,” Storen said.
But that blown save only served to set up Desmond’s chopper to a drawn-in infield with runners at second and third. The ball ticked off the glove of New York reliever Bobby Parnell and the throw home was not in time to get Rick Ankiel breaking on contact from third base.
Zimmermann had escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third inning. He found himself in trouble again in the sixth. Consecutive base hits by Daniel Murphy and David Wright and a balk call put runners at second and third with one out. But Zimmermann reared back and struck out Angel Pagan and then got Jason Bay with a 94 miles-per-hour fastball. His stoic demeanor melted into a flurry of fist pumps as the Nats raced off the field. Zimmermann struck out six of the last 11 batters he faced.
