Washington Nationals rout Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 in series opener – MLB update
Washington Nationals romped to a 4-2 victory in the first game against Pittsburgh Pirates at the Nationals Park on Monday, May 16, 2011 to take a 1-0 lead in the two-game series.
First baseman Steve Pearce hit an infield single off the Nationals’ starter John Lannan to the third base, allowing Andrew McCutchen score a Runs Batted In (RBI) single to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
The Pirates, however, could not enjoy the lead even for one inning as their starter Paul Maholm failed to restrain the Nationals’ catcher Wilson Ramos from touching an RBI tying single in the bottom of the first inning.
They then recuperated to restrict the opposition scoreless until the bottom of the second inning, when Maholm allowed another RBI single to put his team under a 2-1 deficit. Lannan, on the other hand, after allowing a single in the first inning, made a striking
comeback and held the Pirates to no-score until the top of the seventh inning.
Maholm hit a sacrifice fly, allowing Ronny Cedeno to steal a second base before Cole Kimball replaced Lannan. Then Andrew McCutchen touched Kimball for 2-2 tying RBI single costing Lannan an earned run.
Maholm then held the Nationals to no-hit before Jose Ascanio relieved Maholm up the middle of the seventh inning. However, the move proved wrong and Danny Espinosa launched a gigantic two-run leading homer off Ascanio to secure 4-2 lead in the seventh.
“My first thought was I helped the team -- we're leading,” Espinosa said. “My second thought was, 'bad idea by Pittsburgh to bring in the rightly.”
In the eighth inning, Joe Beimel substituted Ascanio and threw scoreless inning, but did not received positive support from the batters due to shutout pitching from Kimball, Sean Burnett and Drew Storen.
Lannan scattered seven hits and four walks over six and 1/3 innings to make four strikeouts.
Lannan, who was waiting for this game, expressed his jubilant feeling with the reporters after the game. He said, “I'm kind of waiting for that game where I feel good all the way through. They say for every 10 starts, you're going to have six good ones,
two lousy ones and two OK ones. So I'm grateful that I can go out there and make the pitches I need to.”
Maholm tossed six and 1/3 innings overall, gave away three runs on four hits, allowed two walks and made seven strikeouts, three more than Lannan to bear his sixth loss of the season in seven starts.
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