Washington Nationals grab series-opener against Florida Marlins 3-2 - MLB Update
The Washington Nationals romped to a 3-2 tenth-inning victory in the first outing against the division rivals Florida Marlins at the Sun Life Stadium, on Friday, May 6 to take a 1-0 lead in three-game series.
The Nationals’ centre-fielder, Jerry Hairston hit a RBI single off the Marlins’ starter, Ricky Nolasco in the second inning to provide the club early 1-0 lead. Ian Desmond hit a sacrifice in the fourth to take his club to 2-0 lead in a stadium full with
the spectators.
The Nationals’ starter, Jordan Zimmermann threw strong pitches and held the opponents scoreless in the first five innings. The right-hand hurler, who will celebrate his 25th birthday on May 23, gave the Marlins their first run in sixth inning.
The Marlins’ slugger, Greg Dobbs first drove in a single and then John Buck drove in a double allowing Dobbs to steal third base. With two loaded-bases, Omar Infante hit a sacrifice to centre-field to snatch the first run for the club against Zimmermann.
The Marlins were suffering a 1-2 deficit in the sixth, when Gaby Sanchez splashed a single generating hit to left-centre that tied the game 2-2. The Nationals have got stressed and they strived hard to grab the lead back, but they could not due to the strong
pitching by Nolasco and the relievers.
Nolasco did not give any run except the two he gave in the early phase of the inning, walked two and made eleven strike-outs over seven innings. The Nationals, on the other hand changed Zimmermann with Tyler Clippard to stop the Marlin’s bat.
As soon as the Nolasco completed his spell and the Marlins tied the game, the skipper Edwin Rodriguez started utilising his relievers for short innings to restrict the opposition from getting set with the bat. Clay Hensley, Randy Choate and Ryan Webb threw
an innings, Leo Nunez tossed one inning and all of these remained scoreless.
However, Clippard pitched a strong inning for his team and took out seven Marlin’s batters shattering their hopes to come back in the outing. Drew Storen followed the same path, held the Marlins to just two scoreless hits and forced the outing to a tenth
inning.
The game was tied at 2-2 in the tenth, but went into the Nationals favour in the top of the inning when Adam LaRoche hit a lead generating sacrifice fly off the Marlins’ closer, Mike Dunn. Closer, Sean Burnett pitched perfect in the bottom of the innings
to snatch the fifteenth victory for the club.
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