The Nationals successful tour through the NL East continued on Friday night with a series opening win in Atlanta. The Nats jumped on Tim Hudson early, staking Ross Detwiler a 4-run lead with a first inning rally. But Detwiler was relatively inefficient, throwing a lot of pitches and getting yanked in the fifth inning for Chien-Ming Wang's first appearance. Wang promptly surrendered a two-run double to Matt Diaz but he settled in after that, getting the ball to Sean Burnett in the 8th.
The Diaz double cut the Nats lead to just one in the fifth inning, and it appeared Tim Hudson was cruising after the rocky first inning. But Washington put together a huge rally in the seventh to push the lead back to four. The big hit was delivered by Ryan Zimmerman, who ripped a double to the wall in center to clear the bases and score three. The rally started with Hudson inexcusably walking Wang. A Stephen Lombardozzi double was sandwiched with another walk to Bryce Harper, setting things up for Zimmerman to come through in the clutch.
Washington will try to take the series on Saturday with Stephen Strasburg on the hill. Mike Minor will go for Atlanta.
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