McDonald was perfect heading into the fifth
For the first half of Thursday night’s game at Nationals Park, it looked like Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed pitcher James McDonald was intent on making some history.
With a perfect game into the fifth inning and 10 strikeouts of the first 16 batters he faced, McDonald was certainly cruising towards it. Before the end of the sixth inning, however, he was out of the game and it took a solid effort from Pittsburgh’s bullpen to hold on for a 5-3 victory.
McDonald didn’t allow a runner to reach base through four innings and struck out nine of the first 12 he faced. A harmless walk ended his hopes for a perfect game in the fifth, but the Nats still didn’t have a hit or a run. That all changed fast in the sixth inning. Three doubles and a triple knocked McDonald from the contest. Ryan Zimmerman drove in two runs. Adam LaRoche then added an RBI triple to cut a 4-0 lead to 4-3 in the span of six batters.
But the Pirates had already provided McDonald with some early support thanks to a pair of solo home runs by Andrew McCutchen. Rod Barajas added a two-run shot of his own as Nats starter Jordan Zimmermann allowed three home runs in a game for just the third time in his career. Barajas had already won a game against the Nats on May 8 in Pittsburgh with a two-run walk-off homer against reliever Henry Rodriguez.
McDonald finished with 11 strikeouts — just three shy of Stephen Strasburg’s stadium record of 14 set against Pittsburgh two years ago — and allowed just one walk. Zimmermann lasted six innings but gave up seven hits and four earned runs with a walk and six strikeouts. Reliever Craig Stammen allowed an insurance run in the seventh inning on a fielders’ choice groundout when shortstop Ian Desmond and second baseman Danny Espinosa couldn’t quite complete what would have been a spectacular double play.
Desmond had a rough day at the plate, going 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, including one with runners at second and third and two out in the bottom of the seventh and another with runners at first and second and two outs in the ninth to end the game.
