Nats, 'Sun Monster' get revenge

Photo by AP

Playing at home against the Brewers with the Atlanta Braves enjoying a day off, the Nationals were given a chance to create some separation and lower their magic number to win the division to five. The previous day they had lost to Milwaukee with the help of a few unfortunate encounters with the sun on outfield fly balls. But on this day, it was the Brewers who felt its wrath.

“You know, you gotta be lucky. We were lucky today. It really probably cost them the game today and cost us the game yesterday,” Jayson Werth said.

“I don't remember a worse sun field, worse sun conditions. Left field in San Fran is tough, but this borders on ridiculous. I’ve never seen anything like it. You almost don’t have a chance out there as the game goes on.”

Not only was Werth one of the Nationals players who lost a ball in the sun in Sunday’s loss, it was he who hit the fly ball that Carlos Gomez lost in Monday’s 12-2 win. 

Werth stepped to the plate in the fourth inning to face Brewers starter Marco Estrada with Jordan Zimmermann on second and Kurt Suzuki on first. He popped a towering fly ball to center field where Gomez jogged in to get under it. Gomez sidestepped slowly before realizing he had lost it and ended up diving in a last attempt to catch the ball. Both men on base scored as the Nationals took a 4-1 lead.


The two-out rally continued as Bryce Harper walked to join Werth on base. After a double steal by Werth and Harper, Ryan Zimmerman crushed a three-run homer to right-center to blow open the game and give the Nationals an early sigh of relief against one of the league’s hottest teams.

“My guys feel it. There’s no doubt about it. The ballclub, we ran into a hot club. They’re swinging the bats awfully good,” Davey Johnson said.

“We needed to hold our own with them and we did. So it’s a good win to go on this road trip six days against a couple good ballclubs, too. I mean, they’re feeling it.”

The timing was good but so perhaps was the nature of the win. Nearly every player on the lineup card today contributed on offense and defense, even pitcher Jordan Zimmermann.

The Nats starter gave up one earned run in 6 2/3 innings of work, a solo home run by Corey Hart on the very first pitch of the second inning. After that he settled down and kept Milwaukee scoreless until he was hooked after his 106th pitch of the afternoon. He finished with four hits and two walks allowed with seven strikeouts.

On offense Zimmermann also pitched in by going two for three with a pair of singles. He led off the third inning with his first hit and knocked in the team’s second run with a two-out grounder up the middle in the fourth inning.

As a pitcher he is now 12-8 on the season with a 2.90 ERA through 189 1/3 innings.

“I was throwing the fastball for strikes and getting ahead. When I do that, I feel like I can control the game and throw what I want when I want. Tonight I was able to do that,” he said.

As a hitter he had two hits, a run, and an RBI.

“It’s awesome. Anytime I can get on base is good. I saw a curveball and hit it up the middle and the other one was a fastball or I don’t know, maybe a changeup I broke my bat on and blooped it out there.”

Zimmermann’s all-around day also just happened to come against his hometown team.

“It’s definitely good to beat the Brewers. Everyone back home was probably cheering for the Brewers, so hopefully I put ‘em in their place a little bit.”

As much as Zimmermann did for the team on Monday, it was Ryan Zimmerman who had the biggest impact. The Nationals’ third baseman also added an RBI in the eighth inning on a fly ball to right. Two runners scored on the play as Milwaukee’s Norichika Aoki made an error fielding the ball. Zimmerman had two runs on the day and now has 24 homers, 90 runs, and 93 RBI on the season.

Next up for the Nationals is a three game series with the Phillies, a team they will see in six of their final nine games. The magic number rests at five as Atlanta gets set to host the Miami Marlins. Winning the division has been their goal for quite some time and with each win they get one step closer.

“We’re getting close. We’ve just got to take it one game at a time and not try to look too far ahead. Just go to Philly and try to take care of business there and see what happens,” Zimmermann said.

NOTES: Ian Desmond stole his 20th base of the season in the fifth inning to become only the second Nats’ player to do so since the club moved to D.C. (Alfonso Soriano in 2006)… Eury Perez had his first major league hit in the ninth inning when he ran out an infield groundball.