+2
The Washington Nationals offense once again went flat and starter John Lannan had yet another lackluster outing in an 8-3 Beltway bruising by the Baltimore Orioles.
The Washington Nationals are certainly not getting the same sort of performance out of their starters on Saturday as they did on Friday. In fact, if it wasn't for an error by Baltimore Orioles first baseman Brandon Snyder the Nationals probably would not have even scored. The Nationals trail the Orioles 4-2 in the sixth.
Nationals pitcher John Lannan and Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie battled each other tight for the first two-innings before the top of the third when the Nationals broke open the scoring. Outfielder Laynce Nix hit a ball right at Snyder who botched it. Two runs crossed the plate on the error. Going into the bottom of the inning Lannan was looking sharp, but soon unraveled. The O's roughed Lannan up a bit and thanks to a Nix error Baltimore put a crooked number up in the inning and now lead the Nationals 4-2.
Pitcher Jason Marquis was taken out after four-innings on Friday giving up five runs on eight hits. Lannan is in a similar boat giving up four runs on six hits, but manager Jim Riggleman has kept with him into the sixth.
You can't really have that much of a better game than the Washington Nationals did against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night. The Nats completely decimated the O's, 17-5, in interleague play. It is hard to imagine the Nationals can do it again, but they certainly are going to try in a 4:05 p.m. game in Baltimore.
All the main culprits that robbed Baltimore of any sense of pride on Friday night are once again in the lineup, including the sort-of odd-man out in Matt Stairs, who was the only Nationals player in the starting lineup to not reach base. He will be DH once again tonight and will look to redeem himself. Danny Espinosa, Wilson Ramos, Jayson Werth, Laynce Nix and Roger Bernadina who all homered in the first game (Werth twice) are all back Saturday to wreck more havoc. They will be in support of starter John Lannan (2-4, 4.53 ERA).
Saturday's game will be interesting to watch just to see if the Nationals can continue getting hits, scoring runs and producing rather than going into another offensive drought. Right now, their spirits should be riding high, while the Orioles are probably feeling a bit grounded. It would be ridiculous to expect another 10+ run performance from Washington, but stranger things have happened.
Nationals Lineup
Roger Bernadina, CF
Ian Desmond, SS
Laynce Nix, LF
Jayson Werth, RF
Matt Stairs, DH
Adam LaRoche, 1B
Wilson Ramos, C
Danny Espinosa, 2B
John Lannan, SP
Nationals Vs. Orioles Final: Nationals Drop One To Orioles 8-3
The Washington Nationals had a bit of a reversion Saturday night, back to their old ways and it ended up costing them in an 8-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. Most noticeably absent from Saturday's game that was in Friday's: offense. A poor pitching performance did not help the Nationals chances either.
After pounding out 19 hits and 17 runs on Friday, the Nationals could only muster seven hits and three runs. Two of those runs came off a third-inning error by the Orioles. So in essence, this game was a lot uglier than it already looked. The only National to score an RBI was catcher Wilson Ramos who hit a sac-fly to bring in a run in the top of the ninth.
The Nationals might soon have to figure out to do with left-hander John Lannan. Lannan suffered his fifth loss of the season going six-innings giving up six runs on nine hits. In Friday's game manager Jim Riggleman removed pitcher Jason Marquis in the fourth-inning after he put together a similar line, right before the Nats put together a six-run inning. Lannan would get no such luck Saturday. The southpaw himself seems a lot of times unconfident in his stuff and an unwillingness to sometimes just go for the strike zone. Like the Nationals offense, some nights Lannan has it, most of them he doesn't.
Reliever Cole Kimball had a rough night as well giving up two-runs on four hits. Those four hits were four back-to-back singles.
The Nats fall to 21-24 and are in fifth place in the cellar of the NL East.
May 21 7:16p by Andrew Kinback