John Lannan shines as Washington Nationals defeat Seattle Mariners 2-1 – MLB Update
Washington Nationals’ starter, John Lannan had a remarkable day with the ball as he threw just over five innings with an ERA of 3.40 and had three strike-outs in the Nationals’ 2-1 victory against the Seattle Mariners at Nationals Park, Washington on June
22.
After this convincing win, the Nationals snapped the three-game series 2-0 against the Mariners.
The Nationals started superbly as they opened their scoring account in the first inning and led off with 1-0 when Danny Espinosa drove a single-run shot off centre-field and Ryan Zimmerman posted a single run. Michael Morse moved to second base at the end
of the first inning. During the second and third inning, the batters did not score any run.
In the fourth inning, both the sides scored two runs jointly to move the score-board 2-1. Miguel Olivo singled to right-field and Justin Smoak posted the initial run for the Mariners at the top of the fourth inning. On the other side, Jerry Hairston Jr.
reached to short-stop on an infield single and Espinosa ran quickly to complete a leading run.
Espinosa said, "Coming back from where we were, people probably said, 'Another Nationals year, they're going to flop.' But this team's not like that. We're not going to accept losing.”
The pitchers mixed fast and curveballs to restrict the shots of the batters. At the bottom of the fifth inning, the Nationals’ batters failed to extend their lead and got out to various fields as Ian Desmond was struck-out looking and Zimmerman flied out
to right-field.
Zimmerman said, “A ton of teams are .500 in June. We're playing good and we need to continue to play good, and if we continue to play good it'll mean more at the end of the season.”
Lannan gave only one run on three hits with one earned run and did not permit any walk on his 89 pitches. Lannan commented on the game and said, “I knew today was a big game. You kind of felt it. It's a good place to be right now. I like it, but it's time
to kind of move past that and set new goals.”
Erik Bedard permitted two runs on three hits in his six inning pitches. The Nationals went on to beat the Mariners comfortably.
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