Miami Nice
After their midweek visit to the chamber of horrors that is Citizen Bank Park in Philadelphia, the Nats headed south to another place that hasn’t been kind to them over the years, Sun Life Stadium outside of Miami, Florida. With a 3-2 Nats lead going into the bottom of the tenth things looked good, but we’ve come to expect the worst when the Nats play the Fish in Florida. When the first two Marlins reached base in the 10th it looked like another loss was imminent, but Drew Storen and Sean Burnett held down the fort and Washington escaped with a much needed 3-2 win.
The Nats won despite striking out 17 times against Florida’s Ricky Nolasco and a stable of hard throwing relievers. The 17 punchouts were the most the Nats have ever had in a game that they won. The previous strikeout high for Washington in a game the Nats won was 16, set in April 2010 when they fanned 16 times in a 7-1 win over the Marlins and Nolasco in Florida. Over the past five plus years, the Nats have fanned 13 or more times in 38 games. They have only won nine of those contests.
Florida’s hurlers weren’t the only ones punching out hitters on Friday night. Washington’s Tyler Clippard faced six Marlins hitters over the seventh and eighth innings and struck out all six of them. The six strikeouts marked the second highest total for Clippard as a relief pitcher in his career. Clippard fanned seven Mets (10 batters faced) on April 10th at New York last year, and struck out seven Padres (14 batters faced) at Nationals Park in July 2009.
Last night’s winning run was scored by Jayson Werth, who reached base in the top of the 10th with his third base on balls of the night. On the season, Werth has 17 walks in 31 games. The game winning run was driven in on an Adam LaRoche sacrifice fly. LaRoche has 16 free passes so far this year. The patient Nats’ free agent acquisitions both appear headed, barring injury, to taking spots among the Nats’ season high marks for walks by a batter. The top five in bases on balls from 2005 through 2010 are as follows:
Adam Dunn 116 2009
Nick Johnson 110 2006
Brad Wilkerson 84 2005
Johnson 80 2005
Dunn 77 2010
Finally, last night’s win gave the Nats a 2-1 record against the Marlins in extra-inning contests played at Florida this season. From 2005 to 2010, the Nationals won only two of five games in Florida that went more than nine innings.
From A(lston) to Z(immerman) 