Javier Vazquez shines as Florida Marlins defeat Washington Nationals 3-0 - MLB Update
Florida Marlins’ starting pitcher, Javier Vazquez had an outstanding game with the ball as he pitched nine score-less innings and struck-out seven batters in the Marlins’ 3-0 win against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park, Washington on September
16.
In the first inning, Omar Infante walked and Emilio Bonifacio singled towards left-field but Mike Stanton lined out to left-field without contributing any run. Later on, Bonifacio got out to third base when Jose Lopez hit a grounder into double play, third
base to first base. Similarly, Nationals’ batters could not find a way to get some runs at the bottom of first inning as Ian Desmond and Ryan Zimmerman both ground out while Roger Bernadina struck-out.
Marlins got off the mark in the second inning and took a 1-0 lead when John Buck bunted a single-run drive towards centre-field and Gaby Sanchez posted the first run. Ben Petersen occupied third base to end the second inning. Marlins’ batters advanced their
lead 3-0 by adding two runs to their respective score-card.
Infante contributed one run when Stanton drove a double-run shot to deep right-centre. The final run for Florida was taken by Stanton when Sanchez singled off centre-field. The remaining six innings were score-less as the pitchers executed particularly well
by throwing in perfect line. Chris Marrero singled to shallow left-field during the fifth inning but Danny Espinosa popped out to short-stop position while Rick Ankiel and Wilson Ramos both ground out.
Vazquez permitted just five hits on his 104 pitches with an ERA of 3.92. He said of his game, “The way I'm pitching right now is not changing what I've been thinking for the last couple years. You've got to know what you want.”
Marlins’ manager, Jack McKeon said, “What a great job that Javy did. We keep seeing him getting better and better every outing. The guy's just been an inspiration to some of the guys around here. If they can't get anything out of that pitching clinic tonight,
they're in trouble.”
Lopez walked and Bonifacio stole second base in the seventh inning but Infante and Stanton both missed scoring runs and struck-out swinging. At the bottom of the ninth inning, Desmond flied out, Bernadina struck-out and Zimmerman popped out without scoring
even a single run for the Nationals.
Consequently, Marlins led off 1-0 in the three-game series against the Nationals at Washington.
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