Tampa Bay Rays lose to Washington Nationals 2-3 at Nationals Park – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays lost to Washington Nationals 2-3 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C on Wednesday, June 20 in the second game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
In a game that was played on a very fighting note, Bryce Harper provided the Nationals with a perfect start. Harper singled to centre in the first inning to put his side 1-0 ahead. Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman grounded into fielder’s choice to shortstop
in the first to double Nationals’ advantage to 2-0.
Ian Desmond also played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash as he singled to left in the first and Zimmerman score to extend his side’s lead to 3-0.
Jose Molina homered to left in the second inning to put the Rays on the board and Hideki Matsui singled to right in the third to keep his team in the contest. Nationals’ starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg pitched seven solid innings, allowing just two runs
and five hits with ten strikeouts.
"I thought he was going to check my glove," Strasburg said.
"We kind of had a laugh on the bench," Washington manager Davey Johnson said. "When the umpire came out, he wanted to look at the ball. Stras was getting ready to undress. ... He was ready to take everything off and have them search him."
"I'm glad we did it in the first," he added. "You have to tip your hat to that kid Archer. It looked like he was awful nervous that first inning. We had him on the ropes. He settled down and pitched a heck of a ball game."
The Rays had the better of their opponents in the opening game and they were hoping to put up a similar show in the game on Wednesday evening.
However, their loss to the Nationals has sent them to third place on American League East Division standings table, three games behind leaders New York Yankees. It will be interesting to see if Tampa Bay can bring more consistency into their game play to
replace the Yankees before the All Star Break.
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