Baltimore Orioles edge past Washington Nationals 2-1 – MLB Update
The Baltimore Orioles edge past the Washington Nationals 2-1 in the first game of their three-match regular series encounter on Friday, May 18 at Nationals Park, Washington in 2012 Major League Baseball season.
Right fielder Nick Markakis lift the Orioles in the 11th with his tremendous homer as the Baltimore completed the humiliation and gave his team fourth straight victory.
With this win, the Orioles not only got a psychological advantage over the Nationals, but they have also strengthened their away winning record as well.
"I wasn't expecting that," Markakis said. "I put a good swing on that and went out of the ballpark."
"Hopefully, it bodes well mentally," later Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter said of his team's late-game heroics. "When you get in those situations that you've been there and handled it well because, especially on the road, there's such a finality to that bottom
of the inning. But the key is our guys are playing pretty loose through that. It's a loose clubhouse. They have a lot of confidence in close ballgames."
Both teams’ pitchers played well and earned great appreciation from their respective managements.
However, the Orioles’ pitchers proved more productive for their team as they held the Nationals’ batting offence throughout the game and eventually won it in style.
Orioles’ two-year veteran starter Jake Arrieta pitched quite well in seven innings and only gave one run and one earned run. Maintaining his 4.72 ERA, he struck-out nine Nationals’ hitters receiving six hits.
Nationals’ starter Edwin Jackson also played well for his team. Though alone we was very significant with his slow curving throws, but on the whole, the Nationals’ took it very easy when the game went into extra innings as they faltered their composure and
lost with a one run margin.
Jackson, in his eight innings, proved his class as he went with only one run, one earned run and five hits with no home-run.
Overall the game was played with aggressively from both sides, but the Nationals, because of their lame attitude in the last innings, lost the game.
The next game between these two teams is scheduled on Saturday, May 19, but it seems that the Orioles posses the abilities to defeat the Nationals again.
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