Friday night marked the third consecutive time the Washington Nationals put a game into extra innings, but unfortunately for Washington it also was the second consecutive game where they were defeated in extra innings. Once again the Nats drop a close one this time to the Florida Marlins in 11-innings 6-5.
Greg Dobbs doubled off Nationals reliever Brian Broderick in the 11th inning to bring in Omar Infante and the winning run for the Fish. The game was tied in the eighth inning off a Laynce Nix double and from there went into extra innings. Nationals starter Tom Gorzelanny was not sharp and gave up four runs on eight hits in four innings of work. He also gave up three home runs that put Washington in a hole early.
However, the Nationals did rally back, much of it in the fourth inning when Nix took Chris Volstad yard and Roger Bernadina had a two RBI double, but once again a shaky bullpen lead to the Nationals undoing. Bernadina had an incredible fifth-inning catch that robbed Mike Stanton of extra bases that should easily be a Nationals highlight for years to come.
The Nationals move to 18-20 and in a tie for fourth place in the NL East with the New York Mets.