The Nationals offense was held scoreless for eight straight innings on Monday night at a rain-socked Citi Field but the lineup broke out in a big way in the top of the 10th, putting six runs on the board for their biggest inning of the season so far. When it was all said and done, the Nats batted around and walked away with an 8-2 victory in their series opener against the Mets. The game was bookended by two runs in the first and then the offensive explosion in extra innings.
Bryce Harper provided most of the offense until the sluggers behind him decided to pour it on in the 10th. Harper was responsible for knocking in Washington's first three runs. The rookie phenom took a Chris Young pitch over the wall in right to promptly put the Nats ahead 2-0 in the first.
Young would settle in, however, and the Nationals would go quiet until extras. With the bases loaded, Harper took a Pedro Beato pitch to right field to score Sandy Leon for the winning run. Leon was held on the muddy track one batter earlier as Stephen Lombardozzi singled back up the middle. But Harper would make the move to hold him pay off with the game-winning single.
With three ducks still on the pond, the Player of the Week Ryan Zimmerman would remove all doubt with a bases-clearing double that went over the centerfielder's head and died at the wall. Harper was hot on the heels of Lombardozzi and scored easily from first to push the lead to 6-2. Michael Morse then added to the big inning by going the other way with a Beato pitch, hammering a liner over the right field wall.
It was a great extra innings victory, with the big bats coming through in the clutch. While he didn't get the win, Jordan Zimmermann was fantastic again. He allowed just one run and four hits through six innings of work. He also struck out six in what was his 18th quality outing in his last 20 starts.
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