Washington Nationals edge out Chicago Cubs 2-1 as Ross Detwiler throws seven innings - MLB Update
Starter Ross Detwiler remains scoreless in seven innings as he helps the Washington Nationals earn a 2-1 win against the Chicago Cubs at Nationals Park, Washington, D.C. on September 3, 2012 in the first match of the four game series.
The run drought prevailed all through the game. Except for a few innings, the batters from both sides failed to score runs.
While Nationals saw Detwiler completing an immaculate spell, Cubs were not far behind in this competition as their starter Jeff Samardzija was equally impressive.
Other than the one run that Samardzija gave up, he was even better than Detwiler because he drew more strike-outs.
Therefore what led to the defeat of the Cubs was not their starter but the one run that the reliever Jeff Beliveau allowed.
Samardzija has every reason to believe that better run support will have earned him the win.
Meanwhile, Washington counted on Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche to score in the match. Apart from these two players, most of their batters struggled to connect big hits.
As far as their relievers were concerned, Tyler Clippard carried out the closing job and earned his 30th save. Although he stuttered initially and helped Chicago bridge their deficit to one run, he recovered immediately. He kept the opposition
from blowing the lead.
Zimmerman has commented on the performance of the team this year believing that as a club they have reached a position now from where they can envision great seasons ahead. He says the current season is going to become a watershed event which will put the
Nationals among the most formidable teams in the upcoming years.
"We've come a long way. You can't start an organization from the ground up and expect that to happen real quickly," Zimmerman said. "Now, we're going to be set not just for this year, but for a lot of years to come. We have a long ways to go. It can get
a lot better. You have to learn how to win and you have to learn how to do a lot of things right at this level to win."
For the remaining three games in the series the Nationals will be looking to witness better run support from their offence and become even more competitive.
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