This is how things are going for the Nationals now.
Their pitching staff allowed a season-high 18 hits in Friday night’s interleague game against the Baltimore Orioles. They needed to use five different relievers to get through the last 4 2/3 innings. They managed just one earned run against Orioles starter Zach Britton.
And yet the Nats won anyway. They won because starting pitcher Jason Marquis wiggled free from one jam after another. They won by taking advantage of Baltimore’s shaky bullpen and shoddy defense. They won thanks to two RBI each from Roger Bernadina and Ian Desmond in an 8-4 victory at Nationals Park.
So make it seven in a row for Washington (34-36), which creeps increasingly closer to the .500 mark with each passing day. The Nats last won seven straight during the final week of the 2009 season. They are now 12-5 over the last 17 games dating to May 31.
| Nats notes |
| » With 20 stolen bases, Ian Desmond is one shy of a Nats record (2005-present) for most stolen bases before the All-Star break. He is currently tied with Nyjer Morgan (2010) and Alfonso Soriano (2006). |
| » Desmond also extended his hitting streak to 11 games to tie Washington’s season high by Michael Morse. The multi-hit game gave him a team-best 17 for the season. |
| » Baltimore’s Derrek Lee matched his career high with five hits. Both Nick Markakis and Adam Jones also recorded four hits for the Orioles. |
| » Attendance for the second half of the Battle of the Beltways series was 35,562. The game was delayed 56 minutes at the start because of rain. |
“We felt like we were playing pretty good baseball the last 10, 14 days [before the streak],” said Nats outfielder Jerry Hairston. “We weren’t hitting that well. But we were squaring balls up. We just weren’t finding holes. Hopefully this will continue.”
Washington has scored a combined 33 runs over the first four games of this nine-game homestand. Things didn’t look that promising early as it managed just one hit and a walk off Britton through four innings. The 23-year-old Baltimore right-hander struggled in the fifth inning, however – and received little help from his teammates.
Third baseman Mark Reynolds compounded back-to-back singles when he fielded a bunt by Marquis and promptly fired it wide of first base. That allowed an unearned run to score. An infield grounder by Bernadina and a single by Desmond drove home two more Nats. Ryan Zimmerman then finished the inning with an RBI single.
The Orioles tied the game in the top of the sixth tanks to an RBI hit from pinch hitter Vladimir Guerrero and a sacrifice fly by J.J. Hardy. But the bullpen couldn’t hold it. Hairston hit the second of his two doubles on the day to score Wilson Ramos. When reliever Jeremy Accardo couldn’t retire pitcher Sean Burnett – even though he wanted to drop a sacrifice bunt – that walk put Baltimore in deep trouble with nobody out.
Jayson Werth singled in one run and Desmond lofted a sacrifice fly to center field. That made it 7-4 Washington. Bernadina added a solo homer for the second game in a row in the eighth inning. How angry were the Orioles after the game? Accardo was immediately designated for assignment.
“This game we had no chance earlier in the year,” Nats manager Jim Riggleman said. “The way they were hitting? Marquis did a great job to limit the runs scored because they had a lot of hits. He got the ground balls, but the four runs they scored would have been too much earlier when we were scoring one, two or none. We knew we were better than that.”
Marquis faced 26 batters and gave up 12 of those 18 Baltimore hits. But a pair of double plays helped keep his pitch count down and he lasted into the sixth inning. Todd Coffey allowed two inherited runners to score in the sixth to hand Marquis a no-decision and earn himself a blown save.
But Burnett had another good outing with one hit allowed in 2/3 of an inning. He was credited with the win and even did some bragging in the dugout, according to Hairston, for drawing the walk and dropping a pop-up slide after going from first-to-third on Werth’s sixth-inning single. The walk was just the third of his career and the run scored was just his second. Henry Rodriguez, Tyler Clippard and Ryan Mattheus finished the game for Washington.
“I wasn’t making terrible pitches tonight. Just enough for them to find those holes,” Marquis said. “Nights like these you got to find a way to dig deep and keep your team in the game and give them a chance to win it.”
