So far in this series between the Nationals and the St. Louis Cardinals it has been hard to tell which team is the perennial playoff contender and which team has made last place its home the past four years.
One night after a stirring come-from-behind victory the Nats took the easy route on Wednesday evening, bludgeoning St. Louis 10-0 at Nationals Park. Michael Morse blasted a pair of home runs and starting pitcher Livan Hernandez tossed a complete-game shutout, allowing just three runners to reach base.
Washington (32-36) has now won a season-high five games in a row and 10 of its last 15 overall. That is the franchise’s longest win streak since a seven-game run to end the 2009 season. Only once since baseball returned to the District in 2005 had the Nats won a game by 10 runs (July 11, 2008 vs. Houston). Danny Espinosa and Jayson Werth also homered. Roger Bernadina batted 3-for-5 with an RBI double. Ivan Rodriguez was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.
“We’ve got [Ryan Zimmerman] back [from injury] and the lineup is set a little more now,” Hernandez said. “And it’s great to see him back and hit the ball good and play good defense. We play good. We enjoy the moment. I hope we continue to play like this because we deserve it.”
With the victory, Hernandez improved his record to 4-8 and lowered his ERA to 3.77. It was the 36-year-old’s first complete-game shutout since April 17, 2010 against Milwaukee and the ninth of his career. He now has 50 complete games in 15 full big league seasons. Hernandez struck out five Cardinals, walked none and needed just 105 pitches, 71 for strikes, to win it.
“The way that [Hernandez] performs day-in and day-out, the way he works out to get ready to pitch every five days is amazing,” Rodriguez said. “Not too many people know the work ethic that he has. He keeps himself ready every five days. He’s always going to be there every single start and he’s going to give us those innings every single start.”
Washington finally gave Hernandez some runs to work with. In nine of the previous 11 starts his teammates provided three runs or less. That support on Wednesday began with Morse’s 11th home run of the season in the second inning. He also doubled during a three-run third and hit a two-run homer in the seventh. In 451 at-bats since the start of the 2010 season Morse now has 27 home runs. He hasn’t missed a game since May 16 and became the full-time first baseman when Adam LaRoche went on the disabled list May 22 with what became a season-ending shoulder injury.
“Hot streaks are usually 10 days or something. [Morse] has just been real good ever since he’s been back in there,” Nats manager Jim Riggleman said. “He was good throughout the spring…but this is much more than a hot streak because he’s coming from that first three or four weeks of the season where he was down in the .170 [batting average] range. He’s come a long way.”
