It took an extra four innings, but the Washington Nationals were able to take the final game of the four game set from the Chicago Cubs, 5-4.
It appeared that the Nationals were going to coast to victory behind Stephen Strasburg’s filthy pitching performance through the first seven or eight innings, but apparently it took the fourth time through the lineup for the Cubs to figure him out. The Cubs scored one in the eighth and three in the ninth to tie the game at four, which sent the game into extras.
The Nationals started the scoring in the first with a Ryan Zimmerman solo home run, his 15th of the year. Strasburg helped his own cause in the second when he singled to right to drive in the second run of the game. Anthony Rendon would also hit a sacrifice fly in the inning to plate their third run.
That was it until the seventh inning when Steve Lombardozzi hit his first home run of the year to give the Nationals a 4-0 lead.
At this point I figured the Cubs were dead, they had two hits through seven innings and Strasburg had his best stuff with him, that was for sure.
However, in the eighth, Brain Bogusevic, who had hit the ball hard in all of his at bats, hit a home run to right field that got out in a hurry, that put the Cubs on the board.
Then in the ninth, Nate Schierholtz reached on a fielders choice and then was given second base. Junior Lake came up and hit a ball in between Rendon and Zimmerman at short and third that he beat out, Schierholtz would score on the throwing error by Rendon. Donnie Murphy would stride to the plate with Lake on first, and just to recap Murphy’s first three at bats, strikeout, strikeout, strikeout. Murphy was having a tough time figuring Strasburg out, Murphy fouled a couple of pitches off and appeared to be timing the pitches better than he had. Murphy then hit a ball to left field that would clear the fence and tie the game up for the Cubs.
That would be it until the 13th when Denard Span doubled to lead the inning off and would be driven in by Chad Tracy on a weak groudball about 40 feet down the first baseline. That would give the Nationals the 5-4 lead that they would hold on to.
Craig Stammen would get the win for the Nationals and Michael Bowden got tagged with the loss. Drew Storen gathered his third save of the season.
Bogusevic would lead the offensive charge for the Cubs, he had three hits in the game while Dioner Navarro recorded two, out of the three hole.
The Nationals were led by Zimmerman who had three hits in six trips, Lombardozzi, Tyler Moore, and Strasburg all had two hits for the game.
The Cubs will now travel out west for a three game set in San Diego with the Padres. First pitch is scheduled for 9:10 PM CT tomorrow. The probable starters for the game are, Edinson Volquez (9-10) for the Padres and Edwin Jackson (7-13) for the Cubs.