Jason Marquis’ pitching helps Washington Nationals defeat San Francisco Giants 3-0 - Part 2
The Washington Nationals were successful in defeating the current World Series Champions, The San Francisco Giants in a shut-out match.
"I threw maybe too many strikes, or at least too many with two-strike counts," said Lincecum. "I didn't have any walks, but when you come up with a loss, it's not all that gratifying."
Marquis struck out seven and did not allow anyone to walk against him in his fourth shut-out in the Major Leagues since he started off with the Colorado Rockies in 2009. He has been a persistently dangerous hitter and his RBI single along with the .385 batting
proved that.
"I was keeping them off-balance, pushing and pulling the string with my fastball and off-speed stuff," he said. "I just felt like I had command of all my pitches and was able to throw them on any count."
Last year had been hard for Marquis as he got the opportunity for 13 starts only due to an arm injury. His season finished off with a 6.60 ERA as he went 2-9. This year has been comparatively much kinder to him, as he threw 96 pitches for the seventh complete
game of his career.
In the second inning Nix drove a breaking ball to right-field to mark his third home-run. For Lincecum it was the third one he had allowed this year.
"It was my first time facing Tim and I was fortunate to get a pitch over the plate I could handle," said Nix. "I didn't try to think too much about who I was facing."
Ian Desmond started off the fifth inning with a single which was the first out of the three he hit during the game. Even though their offence hasn’t been above average, the solid display of pitching from the Nationals’ side is something the team is thrilled
about. They have constantly been around the .500 mark.
The Nationals managed to put in a tremendous performance to beat the Giants. It was a team effort led by Marquis with his brilliant display of pitching. The Giants’ Lincecum was basically outpitched by Marquis, as the two went head-to-head during the game.
San Francisco’s is starting to slip with relatively lackluster performances and problems getting their offence started against even some of the weaker teams in the MLB.
It will be interesting to see how long the Nationals can carry their momentum into their next match-up. The Giants put in a decent performance, but it just was not enough to take on Marquis’ pitching and put up any runs on the board. Only time will tell
if the Giants can recover some much needed form and get back to their winning ways.
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