Desmond, Morse, Werth go deep in first inning Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda had not allowed three home runs in a game all season. By the time he faced five batters in Monday’s holiday matinee at Nationals Park, he had done so in the first inning.
Ian Desmond, Michael Morse and Jayson Werth all homered in their first at-bats, and Morse added a solo shot in the sixth inning. That was more than enough for Washington starter John Lannan and a host of relievers in a 7-2 victory.
“I said it when I was struggling, and I’m going to say it now: I’m just swinging,” said Desmond, who has been on fire at the plate since the beginning of August. “Sometimes you get lucky, like that second hit [a bloop single] … and sometimes you don’t.”
That early power burst — even Ryan Zimmerman hit a fly ball to the wall almost 380 feet away for a long, loud out in the first — helped when Kuroda quickly settled down. He retired 14 of the next 16 Washington batters after Werth’s homer and tied a career high with nine strikeouts. But the damage was already done with the Nats up 4-1. In Kuroda’s final frame, Morse launched home run No. 26 to make it 5-1. Rick Ankiel doubled home a run in the seventh, and Wilson Ramos had an RBI single in the eighth.
It was a win Washington (65-74) needed after losing 10 of its last 12 games. Lannan was wild in the first inning with two doubles allowed and a walk in a 27-pitch frame. But he worked into the sixth inning with just that one run on a Matt Kemp extra-base hit. Lannan improved to 9-11 and lowered his ERA to 3.48. One more win would get him to double figures for the first time in his career.
“I have a couple of starts left here, and I’m going to try and go as deep as I can in ballgames,” Lannan said. “Because I want to win every game, but you also can’t control wins and losses. … I’ve been feeling pretty good, so I want to keep on running with it.”
Washington’s Michael Morse posted the third two-home run game of his career. He last did so June 15 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
