The majority of the Washington Nationals last 13 games have seen the Nats win in nearly every describable way and claim victories that seemed impossible to obtain. Call it luck, magic or a team on the rise, but whatever it might be it did not help them Saturday afternoon as the Chicago White Sox blanked the Nats 3-0 at U.S. Cellular Field.
Left-handed Tom Gorzelanny took the mound for the Nationals and got hit, but pulled together one of the better starts of his season giving up one run on seven hits, walking one and striking out eight in seven-innings of work. His only rough patch was in the first-inning when he gave up two straight singles to start the game and Chicago moved on the base paths to be able to get the game's first and only run for seven innings on a Carlos Quentin sacrifice fly. Gorzo simply needed the Nationals offense to give him some support.
It never came.
The Nationals only put together two hits on Chicago John Danks, Brian Bruney, Jake Peavy and Sergio Santos. Danks left in the second-inning with an injury and was replaced with Bruney until Peavy was ready. Peavy effectively shut the Nationals down and earned the win. The Nationals Roger Bernadina and Ian Desmond are the only Nationals to record a hit in the game.
In the eighth-inning the White Sox put the game out of reach after Ramon Castro hit a 2-run RBI single off reliever Henry Rodriguez.
The Nats fall to 39-38 on the season and will try again for the interleague series win against Chicago on Sunday.